Cuba’s president slams US Secretary of State for denying oil blockade

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel criticized US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Wednesday for denying that Washington is enforcing an oil blockade against the island nation.

“It is surprising that a high-ranking U.S. government official would publicly state that his government is not imposing an energy blockade against Cuba, and that he is unaware of the provisions of his own president’s Executive Order issued on January 29,” Diaz-Canel wrote on the US social media platform X.

“It is surprising that he has not heard his president and the White House spokesperson address the issue,” he added.

“Equally surprising is that he blames the alleged incompetence of Cubans for the difficulties facing the economy—an economy that the US government itself has sought to destroy and continues to seek to destroy today, investing substantial resources and political capital to achieve this goal.”

His remarks came after Rubio on Tuesday denied that Washington is imposing an oil blockade on Cuba, despite US threats to impose tariffs on any nation that sells oil to the island nation.

“There’s no oil blockade on Cuba per se,” he said at a news briefing.

Cuba is facing a fuel and energy crisis following a US oil blockade that went into effect on Jan. 30 alongside widespread power outages.