ST. JOHN’S, Antigua, Jun 12, CMC -Cuba has accused the United States of seeking to prevent Havana’s ability to extract and produce even a small portion of the fuel it needs for its survival from its own natural resources.
Cuba’s Ambassador to Antigua and Barbuda, Sergio Martínez, has accused Washington of taking “another step in its criminal war of economic strangulation and total suffocation against the Cuban people,” after it announced a new round of economic measures against the island.
On Thursday, the United States imposed sanctions on Cuba’s state-owned oil company, part of Donald Trump administration’s effort to restrict fuel supplies and increase pressure on the government in Havana.
The sanctions freeze any US-based assets of Unión Cuba-Petróleo and prohibit any company with US operations from doing business with the state enterprise. The action comes as the Cuba grapples with an energy crisis from the loss of fuel supplies from Venezuela following the removal of President Nicolas Maduro by American forces in January.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has accused the Miguel Díaz-Canel government of using the company “as a tool of both repression and self-serving regime kleptocracy” in the latest statement announcing the sanctions.
(Details in Politics section)
CMC/2026