In what’s probably an existential disaster for the socialist nation, Cuba is left with simply 15 to twenty days of oil at present ranges of demand and home manufacturing, based on the info analytics agency Kpler. The disaster was triggered by the U.S. navy operations in Venezuela that kidnapped President Nicolás Maduro.
The assault adopted a naval blockade that led to the U.S. illegally interdicting ships transporting oil from Venezuela to international locations, together with Cuba. It has been exacerbated by an government order signed by U.S. President Donald Trump on January 29, which threatens punitive tariffs on any nation promoting oil to Cuba.
Cuba’s dependence on oil is structural because it accounts for 83% of complete energy technology and oil merchandise make up 56% of complete power consumption throughout business, transport, agriculture and households. For a rustic that imports roughly 80% of its meals, energy blackouts are catastrophic, as they disrupt refrigeration that’s important to preserving perishables.
The Venezuelan oil that flowed to Cuba, underneath the oil-for-doctors scheme instituted by former Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, was a serious lifeline for the nation and its major supply of imported oil. In 2022, Venezuela provided 75% of Cuba’s crude oil imports. This dropped to 58% in 2023, when Cuba diversified as Mexico emerged as a big provider with a 31% share. By 2025, after Mr. Trump returned to energy, oil imports had shrunk drastically. Venezuela nonetheless provided a mean of 46,500 barrels of oil per day to Cuba in December 2025, earlier than this dropped to zero following Mr. Maduro’s abduction.
Mexico stepped in to fill the hole, however the January 29 order put huge strain on the nation and its President Claudia Sheinbaum. She initially referred to as the halting of a deliberate cargo a “sovereign determination”. However Mr. Trump claimed on Saturday that Ms. Sheinbaum had agreed to cease oil shipments at his request—a declare she explicitly denied, stating, “We by no means mentioned with President Trump the problem of oil with Cuba.”
She later stated Mexico was “exploring all diplomatic avenues” to ship gasoline as humanitarian help. The risk that Mexico’s crude may very well be seized if Mr. Trump proceeded with a complete oil blockade seems to have constrained Mexico’s choices, notably with a key free-trade pact with the U.S. and Canada up for renegotiation this yr.
Financial coercion
The present disaster in Cuba can be the fruits of a six-decade-old coverage of financial coercion by the U.S. What Cubans consult with because the “blockade” started in 1962 following the Cuban Revolution and nationalisation of industries, together with foreign-owned enterprises. This embargo was later strengthened in 1992 by the “Torricelli Act”, which prohibited international subsidiaries of U.S. companies from buying and selling with Cuba and barred ships that had docked in Cuba from getting into U.S. ports for 180 days.
The 1996 Helms-Burton Act codified the embargo into legislation, prolonged sanctions to international corporations doing enterprise in Cuba, and allowed U.S. residents to sue international buyers utilizing confiscated American property. The primary Trump administration redesignated Cuba as a “State Sponsor of Terrorism” in January 2021, days earlier than leaving workplace, deepening its monetary exclusion from world commerce. Cuban authorities have documented over 1,000 cases of international banks refusing providers between 2021 and 2024.
Name for regime change
Within the second Trump administration, U.S. coverage in direction of Cuba is fronted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who left Cuba in 1956. Mr. Rubio grew up immersed in Miami’s Cuban émigré group, the place recollections of the island and deep hostility in direction of the Castro authorities have remained highly effective forces. He has brazenly referred to as for regime change in Havana. “That is our hemisphere,” Mr. Rubio declared on X after the January 3 assault on Venezuela.
Cuba has weathered extreme financial crises earlier than. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union—Cuba’s main buying and selling associate, which had supplied subsidies averaging $4.3 billion yearly—the island endured what it termed the “Particular Interval” by way of the Nineties. GDP fell by 35% between 1989 and 1993, and Cubans confronted extreme meals shortages. The federal government responded with partial financial liberalisation, permitting small companies and decriminalising the circulation of U.S. {dollars}. Extra lately, it has permitted the institution of micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs). However these reforms have proved inadequate towards the mixed weight of the embargo and subsequent sanctions.
The present disaster could also be extra extreme. The Particular Interval got here with struggling but additionally with the eventual emergence of Venezuela as an financial lifeline underneath Hugo Chávez within the 2000s. Immediately, that lifeline has been severed by U.S. navy motion, and the manager order explicitly threatens any authorities considering humanitarian aid by way of gasoline provides.
The January 29 government order declares Cuba “an uncommon and extraordinary risk” to U.S. nationwide safety, citing alleged alignment with Russia, China, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah. It claims Cuba “hosts Russia’s largest abroad alerts intelligence facility” and offers “a secure haven for transnational terrorist teams”. No proof has been supplied for these allegations.
Defiant Havana
Cuba’s Overseas Ministry has categorically denied accommodating, supporting, financing, or allowing terrorist teams, and has supplied to cooperate with the U.S. on counter-terrorism, anti-money laundering, drug trafficking, and cybersecurity. The manager order additionally accuses Cuba of “destabilising the area by way of migration”, an assertion that inverts trigger and impact, provided that Cuban migration is pushed considerably by financial hardship ensuing from U.S. sanctions.
The Cuban authorities has remained defiant. President Miguel Díaz-Canel posted on X: “The harshness of those occasions and the brutality of the threats towards Cuba won’t maintain us again.” In the meantime, Mr. Trump has advised negotiations are underway, stating, “I believe we’re going to make a cope with Cuba,” although he supplied no specifics. Mr. Trump’s actions recommend that is much less a gap than one other strain tactic geared toward bringing down the communist authorities. One final result, nonetheless, is for certain: atypical Cubans—already enduring 12-hour-plus energy blackouts and extreme gasoline shortages—will bear the brunt of the scenario.
Printed – February 04, 2026 05:19 pm IST
