A Cuban diplomat has accused Washington of “international piracy” as the US moves to choke off Venezuelan oil supplies to the island following the Jan.3rd Pentagon operation that led to the ouster and abduction of President Nicolás Maduro.
Carlos de Céspedes, Cuba’s ambassador to Colombia, told Al Jazeera on Saturday that the United States has effectively imposed a “marine siege” on Cuba and that this is the most threatening and serious action imposed by Washington in decades.
“Cuba is facing more powerful US threats than it has in the 67 years since the revolution,” de Céspedes said, after the island-nation has already endured decades of sanctions.
Washington is openly blocking fuel shipments in the Caribbean, he described. “The US is carrying out international piracy in the Caribbean Sea that is restricting and blocking the arrival of oil to Cuba.”
Havana receives an estimated 35,000 barrels of oil a day from its longtime ally Venezuela, and the Cuban foreign ministry has also respond by saying every country has a right to import fuel “without interference” and that “no one dictates what we do.”
President Trump first unveiled the pressure campaign on January 5: “Cuba is ready to fall. Cuba now has no income. They got all of their income from Venezuela, from the Venezuelan oil. They’re not getting any of it. Cuba literally is ready to fall.”
Oil flows from Venezuela to Cuba have virtually already collapsed at this point. But the US administration is still yet weighing a full energy blockade against Cuba, which could unleash humanitarian catastrophe. Politico details of an economy and population under immense pressure:
Conditions on the island have indeed worsened, triggering blackouts and shortages of basic goods and food products. But the regime has weathered harsh U.S. sanctions — and the sweeping trade embargo — for decades and survived the fall of the Soviet Union after the Cold War. Meanwhile, concerns remain that the sudden collapse of the Cuban government would trigger a regional migration crisis and destabilize the Caribbean.
Critics of the Cuban government will likely celebrate the proposal if implemented by the White House. Hawkish Republicans had already embraced the idea of completely blocking Cuba’s access to oil.
Likely there is ratcheting paranoia within the halls of power in Havana at this very moment. We detailed earlier that the White House is also working to identify people inside the Cuban government who could be ripe for making a deal in which they use their position to help oust the current leadership, including President and First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Miguel Diaz-Canel.
This would be along the lines of a ‘Venezuela model’ – but it is also the case that Cuban intelligence is a lot more experienced in dealing with the American adversary, after many decades of being locked in a shadow war and fight for survival.
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