The ‘Special Period‘ in Cuba is remembered for the long blackouts and food shortages, but also for having been a time when vandalism and robberies reached alarming levels throughout the Island. Light bulbs disappeared from schools and hospitals, toilet fittings remained in place barely a few hours after being installed, electrical outlets were yanked from the walls of medical offices, and even railroad ties were converted into pig pens. Electricity pylons were dismantled piece by piece and used as gates for houses, while the wheels of garbage containers ended up on wheelbarrows to carry water. The looting spread throughout society and looters came to enjoy the category of “heroes” to imitate, for their abilities to support their families with the fruits of their plunder.

In this new crisis we are experiencing, the power cuts have returned, as have the long lines to buy food and, it couldn’t fail, the ongoing theft of everything that can be stolen. This Tuesday, someone removed and took two sheets of glass that are part of one of the windows in the corridor on the 14th floor where I live in Havana. The panes had been there since this ugly concrete block opened in May 1985, even managing to escape unscathed during the predatory rage of the 1990s. However, someone calculated that with their 85 square centimeters each piece could be converted into some 5,000 pesos, and so they took them away. The operation must not have been easy: remove the aluminum beads, remove each sheet and take care not to cut yourself with its sharp edges. In front of the window, the door of the facing apartment could open at any moment and someone surprise the thieves, who would have had to have been more than one person for such a complex theft.