Dark times for Cuba’s economic experiment

This is Planet Money from NPR. Cuba is in crisis. Since January, The US has been preventing almost all oil from reaching the island. Doctors can't get to the hospitals where they work. Many buses aren't running. Trucks can't deliver food and medicine where they're needed. People's lives are in danger because there are frequent and long blackouts. In the last few weeks, on more than one occasion, the entire country has lacked power. In one case, for more than a full day. We wanted to understand what it's like for people trying to make their way in Cuba right now, what it's like to try to work or to run a business. Because even though Cuba has a communist government, at times, it's also had a pretty thriving private business sector. But recently, these blackouts have become so frequent that it's hard to even charge your phone. Cell service and Internet are spotty. So I've been talking to people through voice notes. Like this farmer, Lady Casamiro. Who says she can only use her phone for about two hours a day and never knows when. She also told us right now she has no gas, so she can't get to the other farmers she works with. Wendy. A hotel manager named Mulfredo Medeiros Garcia told me when the electricity's out, you have to keep the fridge closed. Try not to open it. And then when the electricity comes back on, you jump into action. A lot of people said that if the power comes on in the middle of the night, that's when they cook. That's when they work on their computers, use their phone. Like this guy who runs a bicycle business. Yasser Gonzalez Cabrera was up for sending more than just a few messages. So I said, okay. I'll record my questions. And you record your answers, and that's what we've been doing. In one of his earliest messages, he told me things have been bad in Cuba for a while. But the recent oil embargo and the resulting blackouts, it's affecting every aspect of life. In some messages, his voice sounds normal. You hear the birds in the background. Sometimes he's walking down the street in his Savannah neighborhood or he's in his kitchen cooking. Sometimes music is playing in the background. But then sometimes he records these voice notes, and it sounds like he's just sitting by himself in the dark. He tells me he worries about his parents because the electricity situation for them is even worse. Because they both live in more rural areas and the government is prioritizing cities. Says his mom, she just goes to bed at seven now. When the sun goes down. Yasser is the bike guy in Cuba. And you'd think with so little electricity across the island, maybe bikes might actually be a good business at this moment in time. Except, to make any money, he needs tourists. Which Cuba used to have. Because even though Cuba …