Shortly after Cuban taxi driver Javier Ernesto heard fuel prices were set to soar fivefold on Feb. 1, he bolted for his local gas station. Cubans across the capital crowded gas stations and braced for impact ahead of the biggest single jump in fuel prices on the island in decades, a measure the communist-run government says is necessary to control deficit spending and raise funds for imports of food, medicine and critically - more fuel. There will be similar rises for other grades of gasoline and diesel, the government said on Monday.