Cuba's Crisis: A Mother's Struggle

0:00It's March 31st. This is Canada News Today, driven by AI. In Havana, a 42-year-old mom named Unisee Rivio is fighting to feed her two young daughters amid Cuba's brutal economic crisis. Living in a rundown house with a second floor collapsed, she's unemployed and often skips meals herself, like today when there's no lunch, just a scrap of bread for her two-year-old. This mess stems from six years of deepening shortages, kicked into overdrive by US oil and energy embargoes under Trump plus blackouts and slashed. Food rations. Venezuela and Mexico cut oil shipments too, crippling buses and hospitals while Cuba only produces 40% of its own fuel needs. Families like hers feel it hardest. Her husband, Cristobal, hustles for rides just to get bread from the ration system. A tourist butter pat there. Rare treat. They lost their snack stall after his collapse lung, drained their savings on black market meds. Now scraping by selling sister's pastries when flower shows up. Healthcare's crumbling too. 96,000 surgeries backed up,

1:05including 11,000 for kids and millions without chronic meds. The United Nations just launched a $94 million emergency plan to tackle what's now a life-threatening ordeal. As her husband rolls in late, Unisee wonders aloud about Trump's talk of taking over Cuba, a fear hanging over folks just trying to survive another. Hungry day.