Cubans in Santiago de Cuba are cooking with charcoal and wood in their apartments after cooking gas supplies dried up. The Trump administration's pressure campaign cut off oil deliveries from Venezuela and Mexico, leaving millions without fuel. Yusimi Castellano, 58, who has asthma, burns charcoal and plastic in her 18th-floor apartment to feed her family.

The energy crisis has devastated daily life, with power outages lasting up to 20 hours a day outside Havana. The main refinery in Santiago has stopped producing liquefied petroleum gas entirely since January. Residents of five 18-story apartment towers, once symbols of revolutionary progress, now face impossible choices.

Haydee Gómez Suárez, 63, has lost more than 20 pounds and eats just one meal a day. "The country is being strangled," said her niece. Santiago, with less private sector development and fewer remittances than Havana, has been particularly hard hit by the collapse.