US sanctions Cuba's state oil company CUPET and blocks Florida firm's fuel shipment
Washington added CUPET to its sanctions list on 11 June and froze Vanguard Energy's plan to deliver 250,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel, deepening the island's energy crisis.
Sanctions on state oil company CUPET
The US Treasury added Unión Cuba Petróleo to its blacklist on 11 June, barring any US-linked financial transactions with the entity. The company operates Cuba’s crude extraction, refining and fuel distribution and was accused of holding assets expropriated from American owners decades ago. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the communist leadership had long used energy as a weapon for social control and profit.
Cuba's Communist elites have weaponized energy as a tool of social control and kleptocratic profit.
The Vanguard Energy deal blocked
The same day, the State Department intervened to block a Florida-based trading company from shipping one of the largest US fuel cargoes to Cuba in decades. Vanguard Energy had struck a deal in May to send 250,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel from a Texas refinery (roughly a week and a half of the island’s demand) and lease storage facilities there. Once details became public, officials clarified that the company required a licence and had not received one. The transaction remains on hold.
Havana’s reply and accusations of genocide
Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez denounced the sanctions as a reinforcement of the economic and energy siege, accusing Rubio of using “usual and vulgar lies” to justify actions driven by conquest ambitions and personal political aspirations. Vice Prime Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva described the move as a deepening of “the genocide against the Cuban people.” The island’s top diplomat in Washington, Lianys Torres, urged an end to what she called collective punishment harming children, pregnant women and the elderly.
To justify it, he does not resort to excuses prepared by his State Department but to usual and vulgar lies, the most aggressive, uncultured and rabid among the enemies of Cuba.
Humanitarian consequences and UN alarm
The fuel embargo, tightened since January when Washington compelled Venezuela to halt subsidised oil shipments, has caused crippling blackouts (one recent outage in Havana lasted 30 hours) and shortfalls of food, water and medicines. Cuba’s government said fuel scarcity is preventing the UN from distributing 170 containers of humanitarian aid already on the island, valued at $6.3 million. UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk on Monday urged an immediate lifting of the sanctions, warning that children were dying because doctors lacked essential supplies.
Children are dying because doctors do not have access to medical supplies and essential medicines. This is unacceptable.
The broader pressure campaign
Since early 2026, the Trump administration has maintained a national emergency declaration threatening tariffs on any country supplying oil to Cuba, adding to sanctions on President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other top officials. Only one tanker, arriving from Russia in late March, has delivered crude since the Venezuelan tap was shut off. The administration has also signalled that military options are not off the table; Secretary of War Pete Hegseth recently addressed troops at the Guantánamo naval base, underscoring Washington’s posture.
