Why Is Trump Strangling Cuba?

*Trump and Rubio at a Cabinet meeting in Oct. 2025. Photo by Nathan Howard/Getty Images*

Amid a US-imposed oil blockade, Cuba is facing a worsening [humanitarian catastrophe][1], including daily electricity blackouts and shortages of food, medicine, and other basic goods. The lack of fuel has put pressure on the country’s water systems and forced commercial airlines to cancel flights. The oil blockade comes after more than 60 years of sanctions, including an embargo on trade between the US and the island nation, as well as secondary [sanctions ][2]on foreign firms that do business with the regime.

In the wake of the Trump administration’s Jan. 3 [kidnapping][3] of Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro, Caracas, under pressure from the US, [ceased][4] all oil shipments to Cuba–a vital source of fuel for millions of Cubans. Mexico has [likewise ended][5] oil exports to Cuba amid tariff threats from the White House. More often than not, residents of the capital, Havana, [lack power][6] amid ongoing rationing of electricity. Food and health [shortages ][7]are also increasingly acute in the culmination of an unprecedented humanitarian crisis [engineered][8] largely by Washington. Sadly, all of this suffering is likely aimed at [appeasing neoconservatives][9] in Miami.

[ Read more ][10]

[1]: https://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2026/02/un-experts-condemn-us-executive-order-imposing-fuel-blockade-cuba
[2]: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article306224076.html
[3]: https://www.cnn.com/world/live-news/venezuela-explosions-caracas-intl-hnk-01-03-26
[4]: https://www.ft.com/content/f844ce4a-82b3-4ca0-969c-679f9ce3018b
[5]: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/mexican-oil-shipments-cuba-currently-halted-president-says-2026-02-09/#:~:text=By%20Reuters,Isabel%20Martinez%20and%20Sarah%20Morland
[6]: https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/cuba-fuel-crisis-9.7083047
[7]: https://www.paho.org/en/crisis-situation-cuba
[8]: https://www.wola.org/analysis/understanding-failure-of-us-cuba-embargo/
[9]: https://unherd.com/2025/10/how-miami-hawks-hijacked-trumps-foreign-policy/
[10]: https://zeteo.com/p/why-is-trump-strangling-cuba


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