has turned them into facts tonight. The president of the United States has gone from his verbal violence to signing an executive order that will impose an extra tariff on any product from countries that sell or supply oil to the island. With this measure, it could further paralyze the country, mired in an increasingly deep energy crisis, especially now that Venezuela is not there to assist its needs.
The order would primarily put pressure on Mexico, a government that has acted as an oil lifeline for Cuba and has consistently expressed solidarity with the U.S. adversary, even as Mexican President Trump has sought to build a solid relationship with Trump.
A reporter asked Trump on Thursday if he was trying to “strangle” Cuba, which he called a “failed nation.” “The word strangle is terribly harsh,” the Republican replied. “I’m not trying, but it seems like it’s something that’s just not going to survive.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez and several other Cuban officials immediately condemned Trump’s executive order. Rodríguez called it a “brutal act of aggression against Cuba and its people… who are now threatened with being subjected to extreme living conditions.” He accused the United States of resorting to “blackmail and coercion to try to force other countries to join its universally condemned blockade policy against Cuba.” “What are we looking for, a genocide of the Cuban people?” he asks. “The United States attempts to submit to its dictates, strip its resources, mutilate its sovereignty and deprive its independence against the nations and peoples of Our America,” he denounces.
The North American media confirms that Havana only has supplies left for between 15 and 20 days.
A formidable dependency
This week has been marked by speculation that Mexico would cut oil shipments to Cuba amid growing pressure from Trump to distance itself from the Cuban government. It was sometimes said that Washington was going to let it keep up the flow; sometimes, no, that it would be in the same bag as the other nations and would not even be allowed humanitarian supplies.
In its growing energy and economic crisis, fueled in part by strict US economic sanctions (the famous embargo, in force since 1962), Cuba has relied heavily on foreign assistance and oil shipments from allies such as Mexico, Russia and Venezuela before a US military operation overthrew Chavista Maduro. It is estimated that Venezuela, Cuba’s decades-long ally, sent around 35,000 barrels of oil daily to the Caribbean island.
Since the so-called Venezuela operation, Trump has said that no more Venezuelan oil will reach Cuba and that the communist government is ready to fall. He maintained that it would not happen if they gave in and negotiated with his team, but he has never given deadlines or details about what he wanted to get out of the island, what he wanted them to give in on. The Cuban president, , has been saying in recent weeks that there was no contact with the United States, beyond certain contacts regarding immigration issues.
In its most recent report, the Mexican state oil company, Pemex, claimed to have sent almost 20,000 barrels of oil per day to Cuba between January and September 30, 2025. That same month, the US Secretary of State, visited Mexico City. Later, Jorge Piñón, an expert at the University of Texas Energy Institute who tracks shipments using satellite technology, indicated that the figure had been reduced to about 7,000 barrels.
Rubio, who is the son of Cuban emigrants to Florida, has been praised even by Trump as the possible future president of Cuba, thus playing in his statements to reveal a possible coup, the defenestration of a new political leader on the American continent.
The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, receives his Venezuelan counterpart, Nicolás Maduro, on April 21, 2018, in Havana.
The reasons and measures
The order specifies the US reasons for taking the step and the process for imposing punishment.
- Trump assures that the Cuban government has taken measures that “harm and threaten” the United States, and that it aligns itself with “transnational terrorist groups and actors adverse to the North American country, including Russia, China, Iran, Hamas and Hezbollah.
- Furthermore, he emphasizes, Cuba “persecutes and tortures its political opponents, denies the Cuban people freedom of expression and of the press, corruptly takes advantage of their misery and commits other human rights violations.”
- According to the order, the US Secretary of Commerce, Howard Lutnick, will determine whether a country sells or supplies oil to Cuba, and subsequently the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, will decide if and to what extent an additional tax should be imposed on the products of said nation.
Uncertainty in Mexico
Sheinbaum has been incredibly vague about her country’s position in the face of this crisis that was seen coming, and this week she has given ambiguous and indirect answers to questions about shipments to Cuba. He has dodged questions from journalists in his morning press conferences, in an attempt not to engage or irritate Trump, ready to pull tariff threats out of the drawer.
On Tuesday, the Mexican president stated that Pemex had suspended, at least temporarily, some oil shipments to Cuba. However, he adopted an ambiguous tone, stating that the pause was due to general fluctuations in oil supplies and a “sovereign decision” not made under American pressure. Sheinbaum has stated that Mexico will continue to show solidarity with Havana, but did not clarify what type of support it will offer.
On Wednesday, the Latin American leader claimed that she never said that Mexico had completely “suspended” shipments and that “humanitarian aid” to Cuba would continue and that decisions about shipments to Cuba were determined by Pemex contracts. “So the contract determines when shipments are sent and when they are not sent,” he said.
Trump and Sheinbaum spoke by phone Thursday morning. Sheinbaum said they did not talk about Cuba. He added that Mexico’s foreign secretary had discussed with the U.S. secretary of state that it was “very important” for Mexico to maintain its humanitarian aid to Cuba and that Mexico was willing to serve as an intermediary between the United States and Cuba.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum during her morning briefing at the National Palace, January 26, 2026, in Mexico City.
“Under threat of tariff coercion”
The leader’s lack of clarity has highlighted the extreme pressure Mexico and other Latin American nations are under as Trump has become more confrontational following the Venezuelan operation.
It is still unclear what Trump’s order Thursday will mean for Cuba, which has been mired in crisis and a U.S. embargo for years. Anxiety was already palpable on the Caribbean island, as many drivers stood in long lines this week to buy gasoline, many not knowing what would happen next.
On Cuban state television, commentator Jorge Legañoa, who usually expresses opinions similar to the government, assured that “Cuba was not a threat,” but rather that the island’s authorities were fighting gangs and preventing regional drug trafficking with their zero tolerance policy.
Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos F. de Cossio wrote on the social media platform
“Under the threat of tariff coercion, they must decide whether to give up their right to export their own fuel to Cuba,” he wrote.
