The U.S. imposed sanctions Thursday on Cuba’s state-owned oil company, part of a Trump administration effort to restrict fuel supplies and increase pressure on the island’s Communist government.
The sanctions freeze any U.S.-based assets of Unión Cuba-Petróleo and prohibit any company with U.S. operations from doing business with the state enterprise. The action comes as the island grapples with an energy crisis from the loss of fuel supplies from Venezuela following the capture of President Nicolás Maduro by American forces in January.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the Cuban government of using the company “as a tool of both repression and self-serving regime kleptocracy” in a statement announcing the sanctions.
“While the Cuban people have suffered fuel shortages and blackouts because of decades of under-investment in critical infrastructure, Cuba’s Communist leaders have diverted energy resources to line their own pockets: reselling countless barrels of scarce energy on the secondary market, hoarding energy supplies for its military, intelligence and repressive forces, and rationing energy as a tool of social control,” Rubio said.
