Cuba has run out of diesel and fuel oil, the island's energy minister announced Tuesday, marking a new low point in the country's protracted economic crisis and raising alarms about humanitarian conditions for 11 million people.
The depletion of fuel stocks comes as United States sanctions intensify pressure on the Cuban economy, blocking the island's access to international oil markets and forcing the government to implement rolling blackouts lasting up to 20 hours in some provinces.
"We have exhausted our reserves of diesel and fuel oil," Vicente de la O Levy, Cuba's energy minister, told state media. "The situation is critical. We are working with allied nations to secure emergency supplies, but the blockade makes every transaction complicated and expensive."
To understand today's headlines, we must look at yesterday's decisions. Cuba's energy infrastructure has been deteriorating for decades, a legacy of the Soviet collapse, chronic underinvestment, and the U.S. embargo in place since 1962. The island's eight major thermoelectric plants date from the 1980s and frequently break down, forcing reliance on imported fuel oil to meet electricity demand.
The current crisis has multiple causes. Venezuela, long Cuba's primary oil supplier under discounted terms, has dramatically reduced shipments as its own production collapsed under economic mismanagement and sanctions. Caracas once sent 100,000 barrels per day to Havana; that figure has fallen to less than 20,000 barrels per day in recent months.
Second, the Trump administration has tightened enforcement of sanctions against tankers and companies that transport oil to Cuba. The U.S. Treasury can impose secondary sanctions on any entity doing business with Cuba, effectively cutting them off from the American financial system. Few shipping companies are willing to risk such penalties.
Third, lacks hard currency to purchase fuel on international markets. Tourism, the island's primary source of foreign exchange, has not recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Remittances from Cubans abroad—another crucial source of dollars—have been restricted by regulations limiting transactions.
