Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel has condemned US President Donald Trump’s attempts to “suffocate” Cuba’s sanctions-hit economy.
President Trump signed an executive order Thursday threatening to impose additional tariffs on countries selling oil to Cuba, the latest move in the U.S. government’s pressure campaign on Havana. The order claimed that the communist-run Cuban government posed an “unusual and unusual threat” to U.S. national security.
Diaz-Canel said in a social media post on Friday that President Trump plans to “suffocate” Cuba’s economy by imposing tariffs on “countries that trade sovereignly with oil” with Cuba under “false and baseless pretexts.”
“This new measure reveals the fascist, criminal, genocidal nature of a faction that has taken over the interests of the American people for purely personal purposes,” he said, apparently alluding to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is Cuban-American and known as an anti-Cuban government hawk.
Cuba, which has been suffering rolling blackouts due to fuel shortages, was cut off from vital Venezuelan oil supplies after the United States abducted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and his wife in a bloody night military raid on the capital Caracas earlier this month. The January 3 attack left at least 32 Cuban military and intelligence personnel dead.
Since then, the United States has taken effective control of Venezuela’s oil sector, and Trump, a Republican, has threatened other left-wing governments in the region by promising to halt oil shipments previously sent to Cuba.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez on Friday declared an “international emergency” in response to President Trump’s move, saying it posed an “unusual and unusual threat.”
The Venezuelan government also condemned the measure in a statement Friday, saying it violates international law and the principles of global commerce.
Al Jazeera’s Ed Augustin, reporting from the Cuban capital, said Trump’s announcement was a “major psychological blow” and noted that analysts have described it as “the most powerful economic blow the United States has ever dealt Cuba.”
Days after Maduro’s abduction and extradition to the United States, President Trump urged Cuba to strike a deal “before it’s too late,” without specifying what kind of deal he was referring to.
President Trump suggested in a social media post that Rubio could become Cuba’s president. “Looking good!” he wrote on his Truth Social platform.
“There is no solution.”
In Havana, residents expressed anger at President Trump’s threat to impose tariffs that would make life even more difficult for Cubans already suffering from increased U.S. sanctions.
“The food is getting bad. We haven’t had electricity since 6 a.m.,” Yenia Leung told Al Jazeera. “I can’t sleep. I have to buy food every day. There is no solution to the electricity situation,” she said.
“This is war,” Lazaro Alfonso, an 89-year-old retired graphic designer, told The Associated Press, describing Trump as “the sheriff of the world” and saying he felt like he was living in the Wild West, where anything goes.
Alfonso, who lived through the deep economic recession of the 1990s known as the “Special Period” after Soviet aid cuts, said Cuba’s current situation is even worse, given severe power outages, shortages of essential goods and fuel shortages.
“The only thing missing here in Cuba… is bombs starting to fall,” he said.
Meanwhile, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said her country would explore alternatives to continue aid to Cuba after Trump’s announcement, following this week’s decision to suspend oil shipments to Cuba amid heightened rhetoric from President Trump.
After U.S. sanctions against Venezuela paralyzed oil shipments to Cuba, Mexico became Cuba’s main fuel supplier, along with Russia.
Scheinbaum said stopping oil shipments to Cuba could create a “widespread humanitarian crisis” on the island, affecting access to transportation, hospitals and food. He did not say whether Mexico would cut exports of oil and refined products, which account for 1% of Cuba’s output.
“Our concern is that the Cuban people do not suffer,” Sheinbaum said, adding that he had directed the foreign minister to contact the U.S. State Department to better understand the scope of the executive order.
Mexico supplies 44% of Cuba’s oil imports, and Venezuela exported 33% until last month, while around 10% of Cuba’s oil comes from Russia. Some oil also comes from Algeria, according to figures from the Financial Times.
Last November, a senior United Nations expert said long-standing U.S. sanctions against Cuba should be lifted because they “have a serious impact on all aspects of life.”
The United States imposed a near-total embargo on Cuba in 1962, aimed at overthrowing the government installed by Fidel Castro, who took power in the 1959 revolution. Mr. Castro himself was the target of numerous assassination plots by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
Alena Doohan, Special Rapporteur on the negative impacts of unilateral coercive measures on human rights, said the “extensive regime of economic, trade and financial restrictions” against Cuba is the longest unilateral sanctions policy in US history.
He pointed out that Cuba is experiencing shortages of food, medicine, electricity, water, essential machinery and spare parts, while the increasing exodus of skilled workers, including medical staff, engineers and teachers, is placing further strain on Cuba.
The cumulative impact “has a profound impact on the enjoyment of human rights, including the right to life, food, health and development,” Doohan said.
