US declares "national emergency" over "extraordinary threat" posed by Cuba
Trump tightens blockade, threatening sanctions against any country doing business with Havana
US President Donald Trump declared a “national state of emergency” over “extraordinary and unusual threats” posed by Cuba in an executive order on Thursday night. The order declares US intentions to place tariffs on any country or entity engaging in trade with the Caribbean island nation of 10 million people.
The US has imposed an effective oil blockade on the country since Washington attacked Venezuela on January 3. Energy shortages caused by fuel shortages are causing rolling blackouts across the country as Cuba rations usage in the country.
A Brewing humanitarian crisis
The Financial Times reports Cuba has just 15–20 days of oil left. Many experts point out that without fuel, even basic economic activities, such as agriculture and medical services, are threatened.
“The Cuban regime continues to spread its communist ideas, policies, and practices around the Western Hemisphere, threatening the foreign policy of the United States,” said Trump in a long statement posted to the White House website on Thursday.
Financial Times reports Cuba has just 15–20 days of oil left, after US pressure helped halt Venezuelan shipments and Mexico’s Pemex suspended a delivery. The shortage has already fueled near-daily blackouts and fuel rationing.
Cuba immediately called the US measure against its oil supply a “brutal act of aggression.”
“Now they are proposing to impose a total blockade on fuel supplies to our country,” wrote Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez in statements on social media.
The long and at times rambling statement from the White House does not make clear what punitive tariffs would be, or who they would apply to. But the statement does target Russia and China specifically, as well as “Hamas and Hezbollah,” who Trump claims are working within the country.
Mexico backs down under US threats
In recent years, Venezuela had become the principal supplier of Cuban oil needs. That situation began to change in recent months as the US began to seize tankers carrying Venezuelan crude.
Those shipments have now stopped completely, as the US enforces what is effectively a naval blockade on Venezuela. That pressure seems to have extended to Mexico as well in recent weeks.
Former Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador (AMLO) began humanitarian shipments of oil to Cuba in 2023, as part of humanitarian efforts to support the Cuban citizenry.
Last year, current President Claudia Sheinbaum ramped up those shipments, which were organized through Mexican state-owned oil company PEMEX.
Those shipments were immediately discontinued after the US attacks on Caracas on January 3.
Although in public comments, Sheinbaum has promised to organize “humanitarian” oil shipments to Cuba through other channels, the Mexican government has taken no concrete actions towards that end.
The White House statement, at least in part, seems intended to keep it that way.
Rubio has long wanted to target Cuba
US Secretary of State has long been clear about his intentions to topple Cuba’s communist government. In the days immediately following US attacks on Caracas, Rubio spoke publicly about the possibility of regime change in Cuba.
Analysts from across the political spectrum speculated at the time that US actions in Venezuela would serve as a stepping stone to aggressive US designs in Cuba.
China, however, seems so far undeterred by US threats. The country delivered food, energy equipment, and fuel to the country on January 21, and signed a bilateral deal to continue providing up to $80 million of humanitarian aid to the Caribbean nation, whose economy is reeling from US actions.
But it’s doubtful the US would go so far as to start a trade war with China. Despite constant public threats, the administration has publicly backed down from that prospect multiple times in the last year.
Any other predictions, however, are clearly off the table. ‘Rules’ regarding US actions in Latin America have shown themselves for exactly what they always were: empty rhetoric.
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