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The Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this Thursday the sanctions against Unión Cuba-Petróleo (CUPET), the state-owned Cuban enterprise that controls the import, refining, and distribution of fuels on the island, under the Executive Order 14404 of President Trump.
Rubio made the announcement via his official account on X and directly accused the regime's leadership of turning energy into a tool for repression and illicit enrichment.
“Cuban communist elites have instrumentalized energy as a tool for social control and kleptocratic profit,” Rubio wrote in his post.
The Secretary of State outlined the use that the regime has made of fuel over the decades.
"The regime has stolen and hoarded the available fuel, using it for the Castro family's private plane, for the security forces employed to repress the Cuban people, to keep empty tourist hotels lit, and to transport people in buses for fake protests and political maneuvers," he added.
All of that, Rubio emphasized, occurred “while the Cuban people suffered power outages and waited weeks to fill up their car tanks.”
Rubio concluded his announcement with a direct message regarding Washington's objectives:
"President Trump desires a new future for the Cuban people with greater freedom and economic and political opportunities. Until then, we will continue to undermine the communist regime's ability to use its energy trade to promote its corrupt agenda and violently repress the Cuban people."
The sanction blocks the Vanguard-CUPET agreement
The announcement comes a day after it was revealed that Vanguard Energy, a company from Coral Gables (Florida), had allegedly signed a contract with a Cuban import agency to lease CUPET facilities and send more than 250,000 barrels of gasoline and diesel per shipment, which was described as the largest shipment of U.S. fuel to Cuba since the Eisenhower era.
However, on the same Wednesday, the State Department denied having authorized that operation, stating that “the sanctions from the Trump administration remain in effect in the absence of specific guidance or a contrary license.”
The designation of CUPET as a sanctioned entity definitively eliminates any legal ambiguity: no American company will be able to operate through its facilities without violating federal sanctions.
A sustained escalation against the regime's economic apparatus
The sanction against CUPET is the second major action under EO 14404 in less than five weeks.
On May 7, Rubio had already formalized sanctions against GAESA, the military-business conglomerate that controls tourism and Cuban imports, along with its CEO Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera and the company Moa Nickel S.A.
On May 19, Rubio publicly anticipated that more sanctions would come against the elites of the regime under the same executive order.
EO 14404 also introduced secondary sanctions for foreign companies and financial institutions that maintained ties with sanctioned entities, leading shipping companies like Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM to suspend operations with Cuba in May.
Cuba is experiencing the worst energy crisis in its history
The sanctions come at the worst energy moment the island has experienced in decades.
Since January 2026, the supply of Venezuelan oil was interrupted following the capture of Nicolás Maduro, and Mexico halted its shipments out of fear of U.S. tariffs.
The electrical deficit reached a record of 2,153 MW on May 13, with power outages of up to 22 hours daily in Havana and more than forty consecutive hours in areas of eastern Cuba.
The Cuban Minister of Energy, Vicente de la O Levy, admitted in May that Cuba had "absolutely no fuel, no diesel, only associated gas."
Currently, Cuba generates less than 1,000 megawatts of electricity, barely a third of the approximately 3,000 MW needed to meet national demand. The crisis has triggered an unprecedented wave of protests: the Cuban Conflict Observatory recorded 1,311 demonstrations just in May 2026, with pot-banging, barricades, and bonfires in at least 12 neighborhoods in Havana.
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