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Havana Smells of Gasoline and Sewage

While the fuel business accelerates construction, garbage, ruins, and homelessness spread throughout the city.

By Yoani Sanchez (14ymedio)

HAVANA TIMES – Havana, these days, smells of gasoline and sewage, of freshly transferred fuel, and of black water running through the streets. Two smells vie for control of the city: one heralds business, the other confirms neglect.

In Ayestarán, almost nothing is being built. No buildings are going up, no new houses are appearing, and no bags of cement are seen piled up in doorways. The exception is the service station near the state newspapers print shop and the Ministry of the Armed Forces, where an excavator is removing the earth and opening a massive hole. In the hole where the new fuel tanks will be buried half the city could fit, with all its needs.

The gasoline economy that came from the United States, moves machines and awakens greed. The classified ads already seem to have more diesel than chicken, more fuel than flour. “Tell me how many liters you need” could be the motto of these times. Everyone wants to grab........

© Havana Times