Bread lines that stretch past whole blocks. Pharmacies with nothing on the shelves. Blackouts rolling through the country every day, leaving big chunks of Cuba without power. What counts as a basic item there has turned into a luxury. Havana's answer is that U.S. sanctions got tighter; Washington's answer is that this is what comes from decades of repression and mismanagement. Ordinary Cubans are the ones absorbing the cost, and some are telling reporters they're hungry. The slide has deeper roots too: backing from the Soviet Union fell away first, Venezuela's support went later, and the crisis got uglier after both. Writer: Sol