Cubans are no strangers to hardship, after more than six decades of communist rule and U.S. hostility and embargo.

But the island has suffered nothing like what it is enduring now. The Trump administration cut off Cuba’s main oil supply this year, from Venezuela, after decapitating the Havana-friendly regime in Caracas. Any steps to conserve energy only postponed the inevitable: Cuba’s oil reserves have run dry, the government said this week.

Scarce fuel and crumbling infrastructure have led to longer and longer blackouts; many people have electricity just an hour or two a day. There have been a smattering of small protests, including some where people have lit bonfires in the streets.