Cuba says fuel reserves now depleted due to US blockade

The situation has been classified by the United Nations as a “humanitarian crisis” that affects the most vulnerable groups the hardest. The United States insists on its policy of suffocating Cuba at all costs.

Vicente De la O Levy, Cuba’s minister of energy and mines -- image via X

By Pablo Meriguet, People's Dispatch

The US oil blockade against Cuba continues to cause enormous hardships for the Cuban people. Following the attack on Venezuela by US forces on January 3, 2026, Cuba has received only one fuel shipment, which provided nearly 100,000 tons of crude oil thanks to Russia’s cooperation.

In fact, following the attack, the United States has banned the export of Venezuelan crude oil to Cuba. Furthermore, it has threatened other countries with economic sanctions if they sell oil to Cuba, which has deterred other governments from selling crude oil to the island, with the notable exception of Russia.

However, the crude oil delivered by the Russian tanker in March – which provided temporary relief to the civilian population and helped maintain certain basic services (health care, transportation, and essential production) – has run out.

This was reported by Vicente De la O Levy, Cuba’s minister of energy and mines, who warned at a press conference about the critical situation resulting from the sanctions and the economic, commercial, and energy blockade that the Trump administration has decided to intensify.

“Once again, we will discuss the situation of the national power system, which is so acute and critical. It is fundamentally due to the ironclad energy blockade we are living under. An energy blockade that follows a blockade we endured for many years, and which served to further exacerbate and strain the country’s economic and energy situation,” said De la O Levy.

In light of this situation, the minister of energy reported that fuel and diesel reserves have been exhausted, and that there is only a small amount of fuel left to keep certain critical social services, such as hospitals, operational.

Several weeks ago, the United Nations, through the Officer of the Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), Edem Wosornu, declared that the situation in Cuba, driven by Washington, is a “humanitarian crisis” affecting the most vulnerable: “Without sufficient fuel and more funding, the most vulnerable people – children, the elderly, and pregnant women – will suffer the most,” said Wosornu.

For his part, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has been emphatic in stating that the cause of the severe energy crisis is “the genocidal energy blockade to which the U.S. subjects our country.” Díaz-Canel is referring to a series of news reports claiming that the crisis is the fault of the government and its administration, to which the president responded: “The best proof of what we are saying lies in the noticeable improvement in service during April. The arrival at a Cuban port of just one fuel tanker – out of the eight needed each month – allowed us to reduce the deficit and, with it, the blackouts, which, although they did not disappear entirely, were mitigated.”

In this regard, he added: “What the spokespeople for the US regime are trying to portray to the world as a direct consequence of the Cuban government’s mismanagement is, in reality, the result of a perverse plan aimed at pushing the people’s hardships and difficulties to extreme levels. Neither the blockade imposed more than six decades ago nor the 243 measures of intensification imposed by the previous Trump administration were able to destroy the Revolution.”

Faced with this critical situation, and despite threats of an armed intervention that would supposedly be justified by “saving Cuba” from a problem that those same powers have caused, Díaz-Canel said: “Our response remains the same: always open to dialogue on equal terms, we will continue to resist and build, increasingly convinced that it is up to us to overcome these enormous difficulties through our own efforts, united as a nation, and steadfast in facing the toughest challenges. The homeland must be defended.”

Regarding the possibility of an invasion of Cuba, which Trump has mentioned on numerous occasions, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said: “A U.S. military aggression against Cuba will generate a true humanitarian catastrophe, a bloodbath. Both Cuban and U.S. citizens would lose their lives, something which only the politicians who do not send their children and relatives to war are betting on.”

He also stated: “There isn’t the least reason, not even the least pretext for a superpower such as the United States to launch a military attack against a small island that does not pose any threat, only because it is the mere aspiration of a few to change its political system or its government.”

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