Trash Piles Up in Cuba Amid Trump’s Fuel Blockade

Cuba’s worsening fuel crisis is now turning into a waste and health crisis. Recent images from the island show trash piling up on the streets of the capital, Havana, and other cities and towns.

Only 44 of the capital’s 106 garbage trucks remain operational, according to Al Jazeera.

“It’s all over the city,” Jose Ramon Cruz, a resident of Havana, told Reuters. “It’s been ‌more than 10 days since a garbage truck came.”

The shortages follow Washington’s cuts to oil imports from Venezuela and new US sanctions targeting nations supplying fuel to Cuba.

President Donald Trump described the island on Monday as a “failed nation” and continues to pressure Cuban leaders to negotiate.

Cuba has received limited humanitarian aid from Mexico and Spain, but the country faces deeper economic and political pressures.