U.S. Sanctions Cuba’s CUPET After Marco Rubio Accuses Havana of Weaponizing Energy

The U.S. government announced sanctions on Cuba’s state-owned oil and gas company Unión Cuba-Petróleo (CUPET) on Thursday as tensions rise between Washington and Havana.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said key CUPET assets were “unlawfully expropriated from American owners years ago,” and he accused Cuba’s government of weaponizing energy.

Al Jazeera

Rubio also asserted that Cuba’s Communist leaders diverted energy resources “to line their own pockets,” while AP reported that Cuba’s fuel sales to the public are almost nonexistent and are currently rationed.

The Hill reported that the State Department said the sanctions were pursuant of President Trump’s May 1 executive order expanding sanctions on government officials, agents “or material supporters of the Cuban government.”

Bruno Rodríguez, Cuba’s foreign affairs minister, pushed back on Rubio’s comments in a post on X, writing that the U.S. Secretary of State is “further tightening the economic and energy blockade against Cuba.”

In the same dispute, Rubio said the sanctions target Cuba’s energy trade and wrote on X, “Until then, we will continue to target the Communist regime’s ability to leverage its energy trade to further its corrupt agenda and violently repress the Cuban people.”

Al Jazeera

AP reported that Cupet’s fuel sales to the public are almost nonexistent and are currently rationed, and it said the latest U.S. measure could block major oil shipments.

The Hill added that Rubio described the pressure as affecting regular Cubans who “wait for weeks to fill their cars and suffer relentless blackouts,” while he said the Castro family flies on a private jet and the regime prioritizes power in luxury tourist hotels.

AP reported that power outages have intensified since U.S. President Donald Trump threatened tariffs in late January on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba, and it said both countries have acknowledged they’ve held talks but the scope is unknown.

Euronews reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin met Cuba’s foreign minister Bruno Rodríguez in Moscow and said Russia “will not accept anything like that” when discussing sanctions against Cuba.

Euronews also quoted Russian foreign policy officials urging Washington to abandon plans for a maritime blockade, with Lavrov telling Rodríguez that “abandon their plans for a maritime blockade.”

Al Jazeera reported that the sanctions are expected to heighten Cuba’s energy crisis and that Volker Turk, the United Nations high commissioner for human rights, warned that the fuel restrictions and extraterritorial sanctions are “directly harming Cubans, especially the most vulnerable.”