主要的经济冲击是燃料崩溃。古巴表示，在美国于2025年进一步加大压力、并在2026年初于尼古拉斯·马杜罗（Nicolás Maduro）被赶下台后切断委内瑞拉对古巴的石油出口之后，该国已完全用尽柴油和燃油。结果是航班取消、度假村关闭，以及配送系统瘫痪。Blain 现在依靠太阳能板、发电机、电池和一辆电动摩托车，因为他的货车在没有汽油的情况下只能闲置；他说柴油不是买不到，就是贵得离谱。与此同时，Trump 在5月1日发布了一项范围广泛的行政命令，可能对任何与古巴做生意的外国个人或企业实施制裁，促使加拿大矿商 Sherritt International 在一周后暂停镍业务。
文章强调，古巴私营部门比以往更大也更重要，但仍然受到严格限制。官方数据显示，当地有超过9,200家中小企业，且2024年私营零售销售已超过国营公司；2023年个体承包商和非国家部门劳工约占总就业人口近40%，高于2011年的约25%。Hugo Cancio 在佛罗里达的平台 Katapulk 提供30,000种产品，每天处理1,500到2,000笔交易，而 Cuba Emprende 已培训超过13,000人。然而，分析人士警告，与军方有关的企业集团 GAESA 仍主导著经济的很大一部分，自Covid以来已有超过20%的人口离开，而且由于古巴法规与数十年的美国制裁仍然阻碍大规模投资和改革，实质复苏可能还需要多年。
As Cuba runs short of food and fuel and protests and frustration spread, the article argues that the country’s private businesses have become central to keeping the economy alive. Small entrepreneurs now operate under intense pressure from a hard-line US policy under Donald Trump and a stagnant 67-year Communist system, while also coping with chronic shortages, shifting rules, and repeated blackouts. Juan Carlos Blain, a Havana restaurant and grocery owner, is used as a case study: he grew a tiny burger operation started in 2012 into 4 Juanky’s Pan shops, 2 KO Mini Mercado stores, and more than 100 employees.
The main economic shock is the fuel collapse. Cuba said it had completely run out of diesel and fuel oil after the US tightened pressure further in 2025 and, in early 2026, cut off Venezuela’s oil exports to Cuba following the ouster of Nicolás Maduro. The result was airline cancellations, resort closures, and paralysis in distribution. Blain now relies on solar cells, generators, batteries, and an electric motorcycle because his cargo truck sits idle without gasoline; he says diesel is unavailable or prohibitively expensive. At the same time, Trump issued a sweeping May 1 executive order that could sanction nearly any foreign person or firm doing business with Cuba, prompting Canadian miner Sherritt International to suspend nickel operations a week later.
The article stresses that Cuba’s private sector is larger and more important than before but still tightly constrained. Official data say there are more than 9,200 small and medium businesses, and private retail sales surpassed state-run companies in 2024; individual contractors and non-state workers made up nearly 40% of total employment in 2023, up from about 25% in 2011. Katapulk, Hugo Cancio’s Florida-based platform, carries 30,000 products and handles 1,500 to 2,000 transactions a day, while Cuba Emprende has trained more than 13,000 people. Yet analysts warn that military-linked conglomerate GAESA still dominates much of the economy, more than 20% of the population has left since Covid, and meaningful recovery may take years because both Cuban regulations and decades of US sanctions still block large-scale investment and reform.