TRANSPORTATION DISTRESS

One of the most challenging difficulties facing Cubans daily is transporting themselves throughout the island nation.  David Adams of the St. Petersburg Times reports on such transportation challenges:

Maricel Alvarez, a 25-year-old nurse, commutes 20 miles to work at a nursing home in eastern Cuba. Like most Cubans, she doesn’t have a car. There’s no bus service either. So she has to hitch a ride. Sometimes a truck driver will stop, and she piles in the open back with other hitchhikers. If she’s lucky, a Cuban driving a private car will pick her up. “I love my job,” says Alvarez. “The only problem is transport.” Hers is a lament heard all across Cuba. Of all the shortcomings of Cuba’s state-run socialist economy, public transport is perhaps the nation’s No. 1 headache.

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