＂$40 Per Gallon On The Black Market＂ - Nick Shirley UNCOVERS Cuba's Fuel CRISIS
Episode Stats
Harmful content
Misogyny
1
sentences flagged
Hate speech
8
sentences flagged
Summary
In this episode, we talk about the humanitarian crisis in Cuba and what it's like to be a Cuban journalist in the midst of one of the worst humanitarian crises in the world. Cuba's government is a one party communist-ruled country, and they are facing massive food shortages, daily blackouts, and a lack of medicine.
Transcript
00:00:00.000
So let's go to one of the clips. So what is this one video that you have here with you and the
00:00:04.160
fellow in the car? Yeah, so this is the intro to the video that's gonna be coming out in the next
00:00:08.260
video. The video has not been dropped yet? The video has not been dropped yet. Okay, so people
00:00:11.040
are seeing clips that's not public yet? No, you're actually the first person who's ever seen this.
00:00:15.200
Okay, so what is this? What do we see in this clip? So this I'm driving around with a tour guide
00:00:20.300
and the intro and then you'll see some other clips building up to it and then I'll show you
00:00:25.580
guys the gas stations as well. Let's see it, Rob. Let's see it. What percentage of people do you
00:00:42.320
None of the gas stations are even in operation right now
00:00:48.440
so they're wondering why we're here with cameras,
00:00:52.380
They want to know what's happening and what people are saying.
00:00:56.140
They're asking why we're trying to leave the hotel early.
00:00:59.400
Cuba right now is facing one of the largest humanitarian crises in the world.
00:01:07.040
Cuba's government is a one-party communist-ruled country, and they are facing massive food shortages,
00:01:15.320
And right now, a U.S. blockade is restricting oil and gas from coming inside of the country.
00:01:20.480
With communism and socialism on the rise in the West, I wanted to see what life in communism is really like firsthand
00:01:26.620
as Cuba has been living underneath communism for over 60 years.
00:01:30.400
Upon arrival, I completed all required documents
00:01:32.860
and had received a visa for journalistic activity.
00:01:35.740
However, once I landed, all my camera gear was seized,
00:01:38.660
and within 24 hours, I was planning my escape out of Cuba
00:01:44.620
and a two-star general came searching for me at the hotel.
00:01:54.660
Where is the people? There's no gas. It's not easy to move any day. Anyway, we have a lot of limitations for work.
00:02:09.820
None of the gas stations are even in operation right now because there's quite literally no gas.
00:02:14.480
When the United States captured Maduro, their main supplier of gas and oil was shut off.
00:02:22.680
And if you do want to get gas, you have to wait in a line from the government.
00:02:25.720
The guy that we're in our taxi with right now, he said his position to get gas is $1,200 in line.
00:02:34.000
But gas, if you were to buy it on the black market, costs $10 per liter.
00:02:38.460
That's $40 per gallon if you were to buy gas here in Cuba.
00:02:43.120
Before they captured Maduro, was there gasoline in the gas stations?
00:02:52.700
Every day you can go to the gasoline station and buy it normally.
00:03:00.040
¿Y cómo está sobreviendo la gente aquí en Cuba?
0.58
00:03:03.900
With a thousand sacrifices and a thousand daily struggles,
00:03:07.900
the average Cuban citizen is the one really going through absolute hell here in this country.
0.99
00:03:11.620
It's so interesting being here in Cuba because everything is just like empty.
1.00
00:03:21.740
I would ask people and then kind of get to a point in the interview where you can't answer any more questions.
00:03:28.140
Let me see the ending of it, Rob, because I've got a bunch of questions right now.
0.89
00:03:32.860
Like, they have these monuments for their leaders, and it's just, like, desolate.
00:03:36.520
Like, when you come into a massive plaza, there's not even cars.
00:03:40.500
Listen, right now you can't even hear a car in sight.
00:03:43.120
And they have all this other portraits of people and past leaders of Cuba, yet there's hardly anyone even here.
00:03:50.800
It's very strange here. They're saying that this is even more quiet than during COVID, during the pandemic.
00:03:58.360
Less people are even leaving the streets than during the pandemic.
00:04:02.880
And the Cuban people simply just don't have money.
00:04:05.080
And they also just do not have the resources like gasoline to be able to go out and continue their normal lives right now.
1.00
00:04:13.380
Meaning, are they able to watch YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, or are they able to consume news?
00:04:20.240
they have to use a vpn got it so actually if you want to watch a tv show you have to go into a
00:04:26.720
booth and then they run it like on a hard drive and they give you a disc what do you mean like
00:04:32.560
they have these weird booths so if you want to watch media or tv you have to go to like a a person
00:04:39.380
who then you know how you like back in the day like my dad used to make playlist off cds right
00:04:44.560
they do that exact same thing but for uh movies and tv shows and so like right now they're like
00:04:49.920
releasing shows from like the 1990s in the in the theaters and in order to even use a theater you
00:04:55.660
have to have like around at least I think like nine people inside the theater to watch the show
00:04:59.680
if not it just gets cut off and there's all these blackouts right now with power so people really
00:05:05.520
aren't consuming much what was the strangest answer you got like what was a part where you're
00:05:10.020
like you cannot believe what somebody opened up and things they shared with you one person said
00:05:16.440
they haven't had eggs in a year eggs in a year like they talk about these books that they have
00:05:21.940
like i think they call them like their their ration book uh-huh where they where the government
00:05:27.560
controls how much food they get and they're like this is horrible we haven't even had eggs in a
00:05:31.340
year takes it years to get it eat a chicken like stuff that you wouldn't even think about here in
00:05:38.340
the united states but because of communism and the government controlling what people can actually
00:05:43.640
do and what they can eat it dictates their entire life did you ask about trump did trump come up at
00:05:49.740
all yes trump came up were they optimistic were they negative were they afraid they
00:05:55.100
the ones that opened up on camera they said it'd be good because they're sick of it like no one
00:06:02.340
there's a lot of brainwashing that takes place so i had a lot of old ladies were like oh no this is
0.50
00:06:06.660
good like they're fixing up these buildings but then you talk to some of the other individuals
00:06:10.580
that like this is horrible like something needs to happen something needs to happen so in the
00:06:15.220
video like i still i'm still going through and like blurring the faces of these individuals
00:06:18.920
because i don't want them to get sent to jail there's some people that like don't record me
00:06:23.140
i don't want to be on tv i don't want to be on camera yes a lot of individuals are like that
00:06:27.060
and you respect it you're like okay or you get to the point of interview and you ask a question
00:06:31.200
and the person then you're like okay yeah see like this is what happens like you i've reached
00:06:35.160
my limit here how many kids did you see in the streets actual kids like six seven eight ten
00:06:39.380
12 year olds really not that many i talked to a kid who's playing soccer at their university
00:06:45.580
he's probably like 12 years old and it's super sad because i'm like what's the biggest thing
00:06:49.740
affecting your life right now he says the lights they just cut the lights randomly i was like oh
00:06:55.180
and how does that affect you as a child he's like well it affects everything like studies like
00:06:59.420
we don't like we don't know when we have power and then there there really wasn't that many kids
00:07:05.860
out in the streets which is weird for being in a country in Latin America usually there's kids
00:07:11.400
everywhere yeah especially when it's a beautiful like Rob can you pull up Cuba on a map on a map
00:07:15.780
and details of how big it is how big is Cuba when you saw like what would you compare it to
00:07:20.400
like it was a big city um have you been to the Bahamas I have not been to the Bahamas
00:07:28.060
so if you compare the Bahamas zoom out a little bit Rob so that's Florida that's Cuba
00:07:38.080
It's about two times the size of Haiti and Dominican Republic.
00:07:48.240
And so there's two million people there, but the streets are empty.
00:07:57.460
Did you go to the hotel that Meyer Lansky built in Havana?
00:08:05.600
yeah yeah is that it no that's a different property capital that's the capital um what
00:08:13.820
else were they saying things like we can't wait for something to happen are you here giving us
00:08:19.440
news are we about to be free would they seem like they're pleading for help with you or they were
00:08:25.140
almost afraid of speaking because there's two different energies right both yeah so obviously
00:08:29.680
some people don't want to speak out because they're sick of it but one of the individuals
00:08:33.000
was like see this is why it's gotten like this because we can't speak out and so people are
00:08:37.140
grateful that you're actually going and showing what's happening and because I'm not going on a
00:08:41.520
I didn't have a tour guide from the government I was able to actually go out and do journalism
00:08:45.600
there's a lot of people who have gone to Cuba lately and they're going on these propaganda
00:08:48.700
trips and if you watch their videos they're only interviewing certain people or their tour guides
00:08:53.740
taking them to certain spots I went all by myself and then I was supposed to go for about 60 hours
00:08:58.580
turned in 24 because they all like they surrounded us at the hotel so what was the reasoning for you
00:09:05.960
wanting to turn around did you just not my security was like we got to go okay they they said this is
00:09:11.000
like the one of the more risky situations they've ever been in and this is coming from guys who
00:09:16.400
have gone to haiti and who have done uh anti-human trafficking missions in
00:09:21.340
in mexico and in haiti so how easy was it for you to change the flight and come back early was that
00:09:26.420
pretty smooth and easy it's pretty smooth but we didn't want we didn't want to let them know
00:09:30.360
and tip them off that we were leaving early so i think we booked the flight at like 3 a.m
00:09:35.140
but it didn't help because at the when we went down to leave the hotel the two-star general was
00:09:40.980
waiting for us and so we had went out to go get the taxi and then the security guard comes he's
00:09:47.580
like hey don't run they're here they want to talk to you what did they ask you so the guy the the
00:09:53.780
general it was like a movie like i can't it's hard to even put it into words because if the
00:10:00.400
feelings and then also like the scenery of it it's like the the stars on the hat like everything
00:10:06.000
that you would expect to see from a from from a movie and they take us back into this room he has
00:10:12.260
a secretary with us and he's asking he's like hey why are you guys leaving early what was the
00:10:17.440
purpose of you're asking you why you're leaving early yeah like why are you leaving early we saw
00:10:21.240
But we heard that you had an interaction out in front of the hotel.
00:10:26.440
And that confirmed that that lady who started taking the cameras reported us to the government.
00:10:39.500
What was their reaction when you gave them money?
00:10:49.840
like that's how bad it is and then you gave him tip was it because i remember being in guatemala
00:10:55.000
i went to puerto barrios livingston tical in guatemala city and i'm going around giving tips
00:11:00.420
to people i i gave 50 tips and i couldn't one mother where her kid starts crying when i give
00:11:07.460
it to her she says you don't understand how much money this is what was the reaction they gave you
00:11:11.080
when you tipped them they wanted more oh they wanted more yeah these guys were capitalists
00:11:15.660
they're greedy yeah okay well at least in every communist there's a capitalist deep down inside
00:11:19.820
yeah so i mean you'd give them money and you'd give them i don't really took one dollar bills
00:11:24.820
and five dollar bills so you'd give them one dollar bill three dollars five dollars and then
00:11:29.160
they'd want more and more and so like eventually but like i had like a group of people following
00:11:33.540
me around asking for money i was like hey you guys stop i don't have any more so the moment
00:11:37.880
they found out you were tipping did you find any other americans there that if you're at the hotel
00:11:42.160
at the lobby were there other americans that are coming and talking to you not coming to talk to
00:11:45.960
me there was other tourists and it was interesting that these tourists like a lot of them uh they
00:11:51.540
were wearing like the communist gear like they're wearing the shirts of jay the communist leader and
00:11:57.380
it's so interesting that you had like all these americans not even that many americans we had all
00:12:02.700
these i don't know where they're from um america or europe but they're all like pro-communist
00:12:09.980
And I'm like, how can you see what I just saw on the streets and say, let's have more of this?
00:12:15.260
I'm Nick Shirley, and you guys can find me here on my neck.
00:12:17.440
Go ahead and ask me any questions, whether it be about politics, about what I believe or where I think the future of the country will be going, or just quite frankly, anything.
00:12:31.160
If you enjoy this video, you want to watch more videos like this, click here.
00:12:33.740
And if you want to watch the entire podcast, click here.