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Cuba Accuses Rubio of Lying Over Oil Blockade Denial
(MENAFN) Cuba forcefully rejected statements by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday, with Havana accusing the top American diplomat of deliberately misrepresenting the reality of the island nation's fuel crisis.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez charged Rubio with outright dishonesty, arguing that his denial of an oil blockade stood in direct contradiction to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump on Jan. 29 — a directive that threatens punishing tariffs on any country that supplies oil to Cuba.
"In four months, only one fuel ship has arrived in Cuba. All our suppliers are intimidated and threatened in violation of free trade rules and freedom of navigation," Rodriguez said.
The foreign minister further charged that Rubio "knows very well the damage caused to the Cuban people" by what he described as a deliberate energy siege against the island.
Havana also trained its fire on a separate executive order signed by Trump on Friday, which imposes sweeping secondary sanctions on Cuba's energy sector. The measures target foreign banks with ties to the Cuban government and introduce new migration restrictions. Under the order, Washington gains authority to blacklist individuals or entities operating across Cuba's energy, mining, defense, and security sectors — as well as those providing material, financial, or technological assistance to the Cuban government or sanctioned parties.
The Cuban government has flatly declared the measures illegal.
The confrontation unfolds against the backdrop of a sanctions regime that has defined US-Cuba relations for more than six decades. A comprehensive trade embargo was formally enacted in February 1962 and has remained in force ever since — periodically tightened or marginally relaxed depending on the prevailing political winds in Washington.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez charged Rubio with outright dishonesty, arguing that his denial of an oil blockade stood in direct contradiction to an executive order signed by US President Donald Trump on Jan. 29 — a directive that threatens punishing tariffs on any country that supplies oil to Cuba.
"In four months, only one fuel ship has arrived in Cuba. All our suppliers are intimidated and threatened in violation of free trade rules and freedom of navigation," Rodriguez said.
The foreign minister further charged that Rubio "knows very well the damage caused to the Cuban people" by what he described as a deliberate energy siege against the island.
Havana also trained its fire on a separate executive order signed by Trump on Friday, which imposes sweeping secondary sanctions on Cuba's energy sector. The measures target foreign banks with ties to the Cuban government and introduce new migration restrictions. Under the order, Washington gains authority to blacklist individuals or entities operating across Cuba's energy, mining, defense, and security sectors — as well as those providing material, financial, or technological assistance to the Cuban government or sanctioned parties.
The Cuban government has flatly declared the measures illegal.
The confrontation unfolds against the backdrop of a sanctions regime that has defined US-Cuba relations for more than six decades. A comprehensive trade embargo was formally enacted in February 1962 and has remained in force ever since — periodically tightened or marginally relaxed depending on the prevailing political winds in Washington.
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