Cubans are suffering under a U.S. fuel blockade as President Donald Trump calls the Caribbean nation a “failed nation.”
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Published February 17, 2026
The fuel crisis imposed on Cuba by the United States is also turning into a waste and health crisis, as many collection trucks are left with empty fuel tanks, piling up garbage on the streets of the capital Havana and other cities and towns.
Only 44 of Havana’s 106 garbage trucks are able to remain operational as waste piles up on Havana’s streets and fuel shortages slow garbage collection, Reuters reported on Monday, citing state news agency Cubadevete.
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Trash has piled up in other towns, and residents have taken to social media to warn of the risk to public health, Reuters reported, citing Cuban media.
“It’s all over the city,” said Jose Ramon Cruz, a Havana resident.
“It’s been more than 10 days since the garbage trucks came,” Cruz told Reuters.
The growing trash crisis is adding to the suffering of the small island nation, which US President Donald Trump on Monday called a “failed nation.”
“Cuba is now a failed state. They don’t even have jet fuel to take off planes and they’re blocking the runways,” Trump said.
“We’re talking to Cuba right now, Marco Rubio is talking to Cuba right now, and there should absolutely be an agreement, because this is a real humanitarian threat,” he said.
Cuba’s severe fuel crisis is the result of the United States cutting off vital oil supplies previously imported from Venezuela. Washington’s move follows a bloody U.S. military raid on Caracas and the abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in early January.
US “Violations of peace, security, and international law”
President Trump has been threatening Cuba and its leaders for months, and recently tightened the stranglehold on Cuba’s economy by passing an executive order authorizing the United States to impose crippling sanctions on countries that supply Cuba with oil.
When asked if the United States intends to remove the Cuban government, as it did in Venezuela when it abducted President Maduro, Trump said, “I don’t think it’s necessary.”
Last month, President Trump warned Cuba’s leaders to “make a deal before it’s too late,” without specifying the consequences of failing to meet their demands.
Amid the crisis, Mexico last week sent two naval ships carrying 800 tons of humanitarian aid to Cuba, and Spain announced on Monday that it would use the Spanish Agency for International Development and the United Nations to provide aid to Havana.
The announcement was made as Spanish Foreign Minister José Manuel Álvarez met with Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla in Madrid on Monday, where he “mentioned the current situation in Cuba following the tightening of the embargo.”
In a post on X, Rodriguez criticized “violations of peace, security, and international law and the growing hostility of the United States toward Cuba.”
Cuba’s foreign minister’s visit to Madrid follows visits to China and Vietnam, which have sought aid amid a de facto economic blockade by the United States.
