In the absence of gasoline, electric tricycles become fashionable in Havana

The crisis with the supply of fuel in Havana has fashionable a new means of transport, the electric tricycles, which operate without a license, illegally, and are being harassed by the inspectors, said Habaneros interviewed by Martí News.

Since the Park of the El Curita Park, in the Centro Habana municipality, the carrier Rafael Alba Macías pointed out that the situation with gas is still lousy.

«Two days queuing for gasoline. Right now I am on the street and very few cars are seen … Many people are selling their cars and they are buying electric tricycles. It is cheaper, because they do not wear gasoline. People are surviving with that,» he said.

According to Alba Macías, on the street operates about 25% of private drivers in tricycles of this type. «The normal botero of the cars is staying behind, because there is no fuel, no pieces, no bombs, or batteries. There is nothing,» said the carrier.

The independent journalist Vladimir Turró, a resident in the municipality of Arrroyo Naranjo, said that the reality is that the country is plunged into a total crisis with the issue of fuel. «Acquiring gasoline is extremely difficult,» he said.

These tricycles, despite the blackouts, have come to cover these holes that are leaving the private ones that operate with fuel, either with gasoline or oil, said the communicator.

«These people are dedicating themselves to transporting the town of Cuba, which practically uses them daily, because public transport has also disappeared, not only because of the lack of fuel, but because of the lack of equipment. There are no guaguas, there are no spare parts, in short … These vehicles have come to replace almost all public transport, and are playing an important role in that topic of transportation,» said Turró.

The journalist said that, despite the relief they represent for the population, these carriers are persecuted by the inspectors and fined with up to 16 thousand pesos, because they do not have a license.

«Most of them are operating on their own because the regime imposes many obstacles to give an operational license to this type of vehicle. They put many obstacles, because they do not really want this to increase. The reality is that,» the communicator warned.

In the historic center of the Cuban capital, where the bicitaxist Antonio Font operates, there are people who have adapted the so -called bicitaxis to turn them into electric tricycles. «They are adapted a battery game, everything that carries an electric motor, and they work,» he explained.

But the issue of licenses does not advance, the private worker complained.

«People work on their own, that is horrible. It is very difficult and is a fine after another, and any fine are now 16 thousand pesos. It is a total harassment … the inspectors, the same the blue, who belong to transport, like the others, the number of fines they impose,» Font denounced.

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