President Donald Trump signed an executive order threatening tariffs on any country that supplies Cuba with oil, and the U.S. Power cuts in Cuba have since become very common, often lasting beyond 12 hours a day and even close to 20 hours in some provinces. In July 2026, the UN General Assembly voted 136-9 (with 30 abstentions) to debate the blockade despite U.S. objections. The new blockade is over and above a 64-year-old embargo by the U.S.
It has been nearly nine months since the U.S. Coast Guard began intercepting tankers and ships bound for the island. Mr.
Independent UN human rights experts condemned these actions, calling them “energy starvation” and an “unlawful blockade” of the island country, as the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights reported. Trump, meanwhile, has threatened a takeover of the island nation — a threat that is unlawful according to the UN Charter, which prohibits “the threat or use of force” against a country’s political independence.
After coming to power, Mr. This has meant that banks find it difficult to deal with Cuban entities. In May, the Trump administration imposed secondary sanctions on foreign firms dealing with the Cuban state and its military conglomerate, GAESA. The hostility against Cuba experienced a brief thaw during former President Barack Obama’s second tenure. Travel and remittance rules were eased, but the embargo still stayed. Mr. This led to the Barrio Adentro health missions (neighbourhood medical services) provided by Cuban doctors in Venezuela. Much of the equipment for these installations have arrived from China.
Trump expanded further on these punitive measures by bringing Cuba back on the State Sponsors of Terrorism list (without any justification after it was briefly removed by the outgoing Biden administration in January 2025). It has also indicted former Cuban President Raul Castro on problematic charges, besides the January 29 order, which declared a national emergency and authorised extra duties on goods from any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. In December 2014, he and Raul Castro announced a normalisation of ties, which led to embassies reopening, Cuba being taken off the terrorism list, and culminating in a visit to Havana by Mr Obama. Some 40,000 Cuban doctors, teachers and other professionals worked in Venezuela, while the country supplied about 1,00,000 barrels of oil a day on relatively easy terms. On September 23, President Miguel Diaz-Canel said that Cuba has installed 1,418 MW of solar capacity in 144 parks and would pass 1,500 MW by the end of 2026. He said that renewables already generate 21.4% of the country’s electricity. Data from the energy think tank Ember show Chinese exports of solar panels and cells to Cuba being minimal till 2024 and then going up to a cumulative 2,200 MW by mid-2026. Havana approved 176 reforms in June to expand private enterprise and foreign investment, but the blockade continues to stymie these.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, which affected the Cuban economy severely, leading to what was called a “special period”, Fidel Castro and Hugo Chavez signed an “oil-for-services” agreement in 2000. Cuba also resold some of the oil for hard currency, according to U.S. officials, to mitigate the impact of the U.S. financial sanctions. Back-channel talks with the Trump administration have continued but there is little progress because the latter demands regime change while Havana insists that it “will not compromise on its sovereignty or political constitution”, according to ICG.
Trump reverted much of it during his first tenure before imposing stronger restrictions in his second tenure, which intensified after U.S. forces attacked Venezuela and abducted its president, Nicolas Maduro and took control over the Latin American country’s fuel and energy resources since then.
Cuba terms the measures el bloqueo, or a blockade, as it goes beyond mere bilateral trade and is exemplified by further measures taken by the U.S. on Cuban foreign trade. Congress can lift it. It also allowed lawsuits against foreign firms using property in Cuba that was confiscated from the Americans. U.S. policy towards Cuba has been motivated largely by the lobbying efforts of Cuban exiles based in Miami, Florida, who fled the island following the Revolution. These hardliners include those born to Cuban-immigrant parents, such as current Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who have sought the collapse of the communist system in Cuba.
Following the 1959 Cuban revolution, the Cuban government led by Fidel Castro nationalised U.S.-owned property in 1959-60. The Cuban Democracy Act of 1992 barred foreign subsidiaries of U.S. firms from trading in Cuba, and the Helms-Burton Act of 1996 wrote the embargo into law, so that only the U.S.
The U.S. responded, imposing a partial “embargo” on Cuban trade in October 1960 and making it full-fledged in 1962. They have also strongly backed the Trump administration’s actions, as making conditions that are “ripe for regime change”, according to the International Crisis Group.
