Nick Fountain

Cuba is in crisis.

Since January, the U.S.

has been preventing almost all oil from reaching the island.

In the last few weeks, on more than one occasion, the entire country has lacked power.

In one case, for more than a full day.

Because even though Cuba has a communist government, at times it's also had a pretty thriving private business sector.

She also told us right now she has no gas, so she can't get to the other farmers she works with.

A lot of people said that if the power comes on in the middle of the night, that's when they cook.

That's when they work on their computers, use their phone.

In some messages, his voice sounds normal.

You can hear the birds in the background.

Sometimes he's walking down the street in his Havana neighborhood, or he's in his kitchen cooking.

Sometimes music is playing in the background.

But then sometimes he records these voice notes, and it sounds like he's just sitting by himself in the dark.

He says his mom, she just goes to bed at 7 now.

When the sun goes down.

Which Cuba used to have.

Because even though Cuba was once a 100% strict communist state-run economy, at one point, not that long ago, it had a small but vibrant private sector.

At the height of Yesera's business, he was running bike tours for like 400 tourists a month.

But last year, he only had about 25 customers total all year.