The Trump administration has ramped up its long-running campaign against Cuba’s communist government with a fresh round of economic penalties, targeting the island nation’s key state-run energy firm Unión Cuba-Petróleo, widely known as CUPET.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the announcement official in a public statement issued Thursday, confirming that the sanctions were authorized under Executive Order 14404. In his remarks, Rubio leveled sharp accusations against Cuba’s ruling leadership, claiming that state authorities have manipulated the country’s domestic energy reserves to consolidate political authority and deliver exclusive benefits to top government elites.
Rubio further alleged that limited fuel supplies have been systematically redirected to senior government officials, national security forces, and official state operations, even as the general Cuban population grapples with widespread fuel scarcity and repeated, disruptive power outages across the island. “For decades, the regime has stolen and hoarded available fuel,” Rubio stated, arguing that these controlled energy resources have been leveraged to advance the government’s political goals while ordinary citizens endure extended blackouts and hours-long waits to access small amounts of fuel for personal use.
According to Rubio, the newly announced sanctions form one piece of a wider, coordinated push by the Trump administration to tighten economic pressure on Cuba’s communist leadership. He added that the U.S. government will keep targeting key sectors of the Cuban economy that Washington identifies as tools the government uses to hold political power and crack down on internal dissent.
As of Thursday’s announcement, Cuban government officials had not issued an immediate public response to the new sanctions, leaving the island’s official reaction pending.