US President Donald Trump on Thursday signed an executive order threatening massive tariff-imposition on nations supplying oil to Cuba, in a bid to intensify pressure on countries including Mexico.
Declaring a national emergency, Trump branded Cuba “an unusual and extraordinary threat” to US national security, saying the US has “zero tolerance for the communist regime”.
“I find that the policies, practices, and actions of the Government of Cuba directly threaten the safety, national security, and foreign policy of the United States,” Trump stated in the order that creates a mechanism to impose potentially severe additional tariffs on imports from any country found to be directly or indirectly selling or providing oil to Havana.
It also grants authority to Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who’s a long-time Cuba hawk, and the Commerce Secretary, Howard Lutnick, to identify “violators” and recommend tariff levels.
The measure effectively intensifies a de facto energy blockade that has been tightening for weeks.
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After an early January US military offensive against Venezuela, which ended in the capture of Venezuelan President, Nicolas Maduro, and his wife, by US armed forces, Cuba’s primary source of crude oil – Venezuela – was cut off.
Other key suppliers to the country have since also yielded to US pressure, leaving Havana with acute shortages of fuel and energy.
On Tuesday, Trump declared that the Cuban government would be “failing pretty soon”, and boasted of restrictions on Venezuelan oil and revenue that had pushed Havana to the brink of collapse.
According to data from analytics firm, Kpler, Cuba has only 15 to 20 days of oil reserves remaining. The country is already experiencing daily power blackouts.
The White House fact sheet described the emergency declaration as an “important and necessary response” to malign activity that includes accusations of “hosting Russia’s largest overseas signals intelligence facility” and providing a “safe environment” for terrorist groups, while also spreading “communist” influence across the Western Hemisphere.
In response, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel remained defiant, stating that “the harshness of these times and the brutality of the threats against Cuba will not hold us back.”
Cuba has been under a US trade embargo since the 1960s, but has not faced the prospect of an American blockade since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, when President John F. Kennedy imposed a naval “quarantine” for 13 days to block Soviet missiles from reaching the island.
Tensions between the two nations have escalated sharply since Trump returned to office in January 2025, fuelled by mutual accusations and geopolitical rivalry.
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