President Donald Trump appears to be enjoying the taste of his devastating victory over Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela; having sampled American dominance in Latin America, he is not content to sit back when more is on the table. On January 11, shortly after the capture of Maduro in the lightning raid on Caracas, Trump dropped a bombshell aimed at Havana:
Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela. In return, Cuba provided “Security Services” for the last two Venezuelan dictators, BUT NOT ANYMORE! Most of those Cubans are DEAD from last weeks U.S.A. attack, and Venezuela doesn’t need protection anymore from the thugs and extortionists who held them hostage for so many years. Venezuela now has the United States of America, the most powerful military in the World (by far!), to protect them, and protect them we will. THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA - ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE.
The president is now making good on his social media threats. Trump signed an executive order Thursday directing the secretary of commerce to levy tariffs on any country “that directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides any oil to Cuba.” The intent of the order is clearly to complete the strangulation of the already precarious Cuban economy—still mired in a deep recession since the Covid pandemic in 2020—which is deeply reliant on oil imports from Venezuela and Mexico to stay afloat.
With the seizure of Maduro, the most intransigent obstacle to an American effort to cut off Cuba has already been removed. In exchange for Cuban doctors, spies, and bodyguards, Maduro helped to prop up the communist government with Venezuela’s vast oil reserves, sending the country about 25,000 barrels of oil per day (bpd) in 2023 and 10,000 bpd in 2024 and 2025. Despite the ongoing Cuban energy crisis, much of the oil provided to Cuba by Maduro was resold by Havana to acquire desperately needed cash for other uses.
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