Cubans are struggling with blackouts and fuel rationing amid President Trump’s campaign to provoke regime change by choking off the energy supply of the island nation, which is heavily dependent on fuel imports.
Trump last month threatened to impose tariffs on any country that sends oil to Cuba, labelling the island “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security. He noted the Cuban government’s relations with Russia, China, and Iran as evidence of that threat, which, Trump suggested, would present as “migration and violence.”
The island’s biggest oil supplier was out of the picture already, since that was Venezuela, and the United States effectively took control of the country’s oil industry following the ousting of President Nicolas Maduro.
Cuba’s second-largest oil supplier, Mexico, initially took a tough stance, with President Claudia Scheinbaum saying the country would continue supplying oil to Cuba because “It’s not right. They don’t have fuel for hospitals or schools. The people are suffering.” However, Kpler data shows that no oil cargoes arrived at Cuban ports in January. Indeed, earlier this week, President Scheinbaum said Mexican oil shipments to Cuba were suspended as the country’s government looked for ways to provide fuel for the island without triggering Trump’s wrath and tariffs.
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