San Juan, Puerto Rico — On Thursday, the US government announced sanctions against Cuba State-owned oil and gas company in a move expected to increase tensions between the two countries.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio He confirmed that the company’s main assets, known as Cupet, “were illegally seized from their American owners years ago.”
He also accused the Cuban government of using energy as a weapon.
“While the Cuban people suffer from fuel shortages and power outages due to decades of underinvestment in critical infrastructure, Cuba’s communist leaders have diverted energy resources into their own pockets,” Rubio said in a statement.
He further noted, without providing any evidence, that Cuban officials “are reselling countless barrels of rare energy on the secondary market, hoarding energy supplies for their military, intelligence and repressive forces, and energy rationing as a tool of social control.”
The Cuban government did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. She previously said that the sanctions punish all Cubans and aim to stifle the economy to destabilize the government and the people.
Cupet’s fuel sales to the public are almost non-existent and are currently rationed.
Thursday’s announcement comes about a week after the US government’s announcement Imposing sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel And other officials, as well as many institutions.
All QBIT property or interests located in the United States or owned or controlled by US citizens are prohibited, Rubio said in a statement.
” President Trump “He wants a new future for the Cuban people with greater freedom and economic and political opportunity,” Rubio wrote on X. He added: “Until then, we will continue to target the communist regime’s ability to profit from the energy trade to advance its corrupt agenda and violently oppress the Cuban people.”
Cuba is already struggling under a decades-long blockade Oil shortage As the United States continues to push to change its economic and political model.
Power outages – already common given the economic and energy crisis sweeping the island over the past five years – have become more severe since US President Donald Trump. It threatened tariffs in late January On any country that sells or supplies oil to Cuba.
Both countries have acknowledged this They had talksbut its scope is unknown.
Meanwhile, Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since US forces invaded Venezuela It arrested former President Nicolas Maduro.
Trump said last Thursday that Cuba had “kind of collapsed” and said “we’ll deal with that as soon as we’re done” with military operations in Iran.
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