The U.S. imposed sanctions Thursday on Cuba’s state-owned oil company, part of a Trump administration effort to restrict fuel supplies and increase pressure on the island’s Communist government,
Politico reports.
The sanctions freeze any U.S.-based assets of Unión Cuba-Petróleo and prohibit any company with U.S. operations from doing business with the state enterprise. The action comes as the island grapples with an energy crisis from the loss of fuel supplies from Venezuela following the capture of President Nicolas Maduro by American forces in January.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the Cuban government of using the company “as a tool of both repression and self-serving regime kleptocracy” in a statement announcing the sanctions.
“While the Cuban people have suffered fuel shortages and blackouts because of decades of under-investment in critical infrastructure, Cuba’s Communist leaders have diverted energy resources to line their own pockets: reselling countless barrels of scarce energy on the secondary market, hoarding energy supplies for its military, intelligence and repressive forces, and rationing energy as a tool of social control,” Rubio said.
Under President Donald Trump, the U.S. has tightened the long-standing U.S. economic embargo on Cuba, dispatched troops to the Caribbean and indicted former President Raul Castro as part of its pressure campaign on the island. Rubio suggested that additional measures on the energy sector could be forthcoming.
“The Trump Administration will continue to target Cuba’s ability to leverage energy trade to further its corrupt agenda and repressive security apparatus,” he said.
In a separate action, the State Department said it would block a plan by Florida-based Vanguard Energy to ship 250,000 barrels of critically needed gas and diesel to Cuba in what would have been one of the largest shipments of fuel to the island in recent times. It said the company had failed to secure the required license for such a deal.
In addition to the increased economic pressure on Cuba, Trump has repeatedly hinted at the possibility of a U.S. invasion to overthrow the island’s government.
“My commitment is ironclad: America will not tolerate a rogue state harboring hostile foreign military, intelligence and terror operations just 90 miles from the American homeland, and we will not rest until the people of Cuba once again have the freedom their forefathers fought so valiantly to establish over 100 years ago,” Trump said in a statement recognizing Cuba’s Independence Day.
