Lines Form in Cuba as Drivers Brace for Gasoline Limits

Long, waiting lines of cars formed outside service stations in Havana on Tuesday as Cuban motorists braced themselves for fuel restrictions expected to be announced by the Communist government today.

At one of the busiest service stations in Havana’s central Vedado district, a line nearly a mile long of more than 80 cars curled around an entire block and stretched back along the city’s sea front.

There were smaller lines of vehicles at stations in Havana where gasoline was still being distributed.

Gas has been in short supply in the capital for almost a week, touching off a spate of panic buying by motorists.

A senior Cuban official said last Friday that some shipments of oil from the Soviet Union had not arrived as scheduled and so the amount of gas being refined on the island had fallen.