The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla responded to statements made by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, labeling the claim that Cuba received Venezuelan fuel for free as false.
In a video posted on his X account on Thursday, recorded during an interview for the podcast Cuba Analysis, the chancellor was emphatic: "It is completely false, it is a lie."
Rodríguez argued that the fuel was arriving "under normal conditions of international trade," either through "exports of medical services or through acquisitions under conditions even more unfavorable than those of the market," due to the "country risk" that, according to him, is generated by Washington's hostility.
The statement comes amid a public confrontation between Rodríguez and Rubio sparked by a new round of U.S. sanctions announced this Thursday, which included the Banco Exterior de Cuba, Fidel Ernesto Castro Calis —grandson of Raúl Castro— and four state entities linked to the energy sector: Comercial CUPET S.A., ABAPET, NICAROTEC, and CEXNI.
Rubio, in defending the measures, accused the regime's leadership of enriching themselves at the expense of the population: "The elites of the Cuban communist regime preside over a failed state where ordinary Cubans suffer from hunger while the Castro family and their associates become wealthy through sanctions evasion and other illicit schemes."
The chancellor responded by accusing the Secretary of State of "lying about Cuba for two consecutive days" and described the sanctions as "collective punishment" and a "crime."
The background of the debate refers to the Comprehensive Cooperation Agreement signed between Cuba and Venezuela in October 2000, which established a scheme of oil for professional services—primarily medical—at market price with preferential financing, not a free donation.
Venezuela managed to send between 53,000 and 115,000 barrels daily during various periods. However, Rubio has argued that Cuba resold about 60% of the Venezuelan crude it received to Asian markets, a claim he uses to assert that the oil effectively acted as a subsidy benefiting the ruling elite.
Following the capture of Nicolás Maduro by U.S. forces in January 2026, the Venezuelan supply was drastically interrupted.
In April, President Miguel Díaz-Canel acknowledged that Cuba had gone four consecutive months without receiving fuel from abroad, a situation that has exacerbated blackouts and the shortages currently affecting the population.
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has accumulated over 240 designations related to Cuba as part of its maximum pressure policy. Rubio summarized the strategy in August with a phrase that defines the course: "Every time they create a new mechanism to try to escape the noose, we simply tighten it."
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