MARTÍN KOPPEL AND
CLAUDIA KAISER-LENOIR
HAVANA — One of the most visible changes today, which was just beginning when our Militant reporting team was here in February, is the hundreds of electric tricycles, many of them solar-powered, on Havana’s streets.
Drivers transport passengers and deliver food and other goods. In a popular initiative in one neighborhood, some are now being organized to collect trash, beginning to reduce piles of garbage that have been mounting in residential areas for the past couple of years.
Reporter’s Notebook from Havana
These efforts are part of the Cuban people’s response to the near-total oil blockade Washington has imposed on their country, which sharply escalated its decadeslong economic war against Cuba’s socialist revolution.
Even before the oil ban, the U.S. economic chokehold has for the past several years made it extremely difficult for Cuba to import fuel, food, fertilizer, medicine, spare parts and other essentials, leading to frequent blackouts and a severe disruption of agricultural and industrial production. Bus transportation, trash collection, and other public services have been virtually paralyzed.
In response, the Cuban government has begun to implement a series of measures to encourage foreign investment and loosen restrictions on private businesses. The new measures authorize private firms, among other things, to sell gasoline, build vehicles and import and export directly without going through state intermediaries.
While the oil blockade has left state-run gas stations virtually dry, Washington has allowed private businesses on the island to buy fuel directly from U.S. companies. In the first half of 2026, $96 million in gasoline and diesel was shipped to Cuba from Miami and Houston.
Some of the fuel is being purchased by private gasoline stations now operating in Cuba. One gas station visited by Militant reporters caters to foreigners renting cars and charges $5 a liter.
Black-market prices are even higher. We met a self-employed refrigeration mechanic who uses his motorbike for work. “I pay for what must be the most expensive gas in the world — $7 a liter,” he said.
Electric tricycles everywhere
The fuel shortage has led to a proliferation of electric tricycles, many imported from China. Some are assembled in Cuba, including in a Havana factory, VEDCA, a joint venture with a Chinese company.
The drivers recharge their vehicles whenever electric power is available. A growing number are rigging a solar panel onto the roof of their tricycle.
Some three-wheelers transport merchandise for small businesses. Others have installed seats and pick up passengers, often along established routes. The $2,000 to $4,000 price to purchase an electric tricycle — plus $800 or more to install a solar panel — is out of reach for most Cubans, unless they get help from relatives abroad or earn enough as business owners. Nonetheless, the tricycles have already made a difference in daily life.
Many Havana residents told us they can’t afford to pay for a tricycle ride all the time, but whenever they’re able to, it’s much better than having to walk long distances under the sun.
Driver Ángel Bisset told us he rents a six-passenger tricycle from a company that has acquired several electric vehicles. His new job transporting passengers gives him a source of income and the satisfaction of meeting a pressing social need. Bisset wanted us to know that “I’m a revolutionary, and I’ll always defend the legacy of the revolution,” despite the material limitations Cubans face today.
Bisset’s expression of pride underscored an observation more than one person made to us during our visit — that the idling of thousands of Cuban workers by the U.S.-driven economic dislocation has a dampening impact on morale. And every step to organize working people into productive activity increases their self-confidence.
Initiative to clean up neighborhood
In several cities across the island, solar-powered charging stations are being set up, allowing residents to charge electric vehicles and household devices. They are known as “solineras” — a play on the Spanish words for sun (sol) and gas station (gasolinera).
To facilitate the development of renewable energy sources, the Cuban government recently adopted tax exemptions on imports of solar panels, batteries and other equipment for electric vehicles.
In one initiative in Havana launched July 1, electric tricycles are being used to collect garbage in a section of the Vedado neighborhood. The drivers charge their vehicles at a solinera on a central street known as La Rampa, hence the project’s name, El Rampeño. It operates as a private business with some financial and logistical support from the local government in Havana’s Plaza municipality.
The electric tricycles — currently 10, to be expanded to 30 — are each operated by a driver and a helper, who are members of the Central Organization of Cuban Workers (CTC), the country’s trade union federation. Residents set their trash bags on the curb according to an established pickup schedule, and the drivers take it to a city garbage dump.
“We work two shifts — starting at 7 a.m. and at 8 p.m., each for a couple of hours,” driver Alexis Rodríguez said. “We can also work hours in between, to get additional pay.
“Even with 10 tricycles, we’ve already made a difference,” Rodríguez said, as drivers gathered at the solinera for the morning shift of Aug. 17.
“It’s certainly an improvement,” said Karina González, a resident in the area covered by El Rampeño.
Militant reporters saw noticeable progress in clearing away the piles of garbage in Vedado just during the two weeks of August we were here. The accumulation of unsightly, unsanitary piles of trash has been an ongoing concern, and a frequent piece of propaganda in the U.S. press, so advances on this front have boosted the morale of working people.
As the service becomes regularized, households will be charged 100 pesos a month, a relatively modest amount for most, and businesses will pay more. “Vulnerable” households, such as retirees on government pensions and mothers of children with severe disabilities, will be exempt. For decades the public trash removal has been free of charge, but given the severe shortage of working garbage trucks, González said, most residents are glad to pay the monthly fee to keep their streets clean.
The new project does pose challenges, González said. Residents have largely been informed about the new program through WhatsApp and other internet-based messaging services. “It would be good if our mass organizations — like the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution and Federation of Cuban Women — got involved.” That would keep the community better informed and organized, she said.
The solinera already has the photovoltaic panels, but not yet the equipment to convert solar energy into power for the vehicles’ batteries. In the meantime, they are charged up through the city’s electricity grid.
For now, El Rampeño is used only to power the trash removal vehicles. Eventually, however, it will be made available to residents to recharge their cellphones, appliances, electric bikes and other equipment.
In addition, the government is seeking to make progress on clearing accumulated debri that is too big for the three-wheelers. One day, we witnessed members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces working together with city sanitation workers to load fallen tree branches and other bulky trash onto garbage trucks.
Solar charging projects are also being launched in other parts of the country, Herminio Fernández told us. The Cuban press has reported on plans to set up solineras in Santa Clara, Matanzas and Holguín.
El Rampeño is still in its infancy. “But we know more solar charging stations are coming, and our contribution will increase,” said driver Heriberto García.
Jonathan Silberman contributed to this article.