US sanctions Cuba's state oil company Cupet: lawful pressure on a bad actor, or strangling a population?
The US State Department added Cuba's state oil company Unión Cuba-Petróleo (Cupet) to the Treasury's OFAC sanctions list under Executive Order 14404, blocking its US assets, as part of the Trump administration's maximum-pressure campaign to cut fuel to the island. Washington says Cuba weaponizes energy and that Cupet holds assets expropriated from Americans; Havana calls it 'vulgar lies' and says the move deepens an energy blockade that punishes ordinary Cubans amid blackouts and shortages.
The summary above is a neutral framing. Below, each side reports the same story in its own words — judge for yourself.
The State Department says Cupet was sanctioned for operating in Cuba's energy sector, with Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserting that key Cupet assets 'were unlawfully expropriated from American owners' in the 1960 nationalization and accusing Havana of using energy 'as a weapon' and diverting resources to enrich the ruling elite. The designation, under Executive Order 14404, is part of a campaign that has also sanctioned President Díaz-Canel and sought to choke off fuel shipments to the island.
Cuba's foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez charged that Rubio resorts to 'usual vulgar lies' to justify the measure, while a deputy prime minister said it 'deepens the energy blockade and with it the genocide' Washington commits against Cubans. Havana frames the sanction as part of a campaign of 'conquest' that worsens an energy crisis of blackouts and fuel shortages, hitting the most vulnerable hardest; news agencies noted Rubio gave no evidence for the claim that the government diverts resources to enrich itself.
