American officials reportedly believe that by shutting off Cuba’s access to oil, they will place its government in a “chokehold”
The US is considering imposing a total blockade on oil imports to Cuba, Politico has reported. News of the possible blockade comes as Washington reportedly searches for Cuban insiders to help topple Miguel Diaz-Canel’s government.
The plan is being “sought by some critics of the Cuban government” within President Donald Trump’s administration, and is backed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Politico reported on Friday, citing anonymous sources. Trump has not made a decision on whether to go ahead with the blockade, they claimed.
Trump announced last week that he would stop any shipments of Venezuelan oil from reaching Cuba, but a total blockade would place the island in a “chokehold to kill the regime,” one source said.
Cuba has been under a US trade embargo since the 1960s, but the island has not faced the prospect of an American naval blockade since 1962, when John F. Kennedy placed it under “quarantine” for 13 days to prevent the transfer of Soviet missiles to the Cuban military.
After abducting Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro earlier this month, Trump warned that Cuba was “ready to fall” next. The US president urged Havana to “make a deal, before it is too late,” without elaborating on the terms of such a deal.
“If I lived in Havana and I was in the government, I’d be concerned,” Rubio told NBC News the day after Maduro’s kidnapping.
President Diaz-Canel has rejected Trump’s threats, stating that “Cuba is a free, independent and sovereign nation,” and that “nobody dictates what we do.”
The Trump administration is now looking to carry out a regime-change operation by the end of the year, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday. American officials have been holding meetings with Cuban exiles and civic groups in Miami and Washington in an attempt to identify a government official in Havana who might “want to cut a deal,” the newspaper reported.
Politico’s sources backed up this report, with one stating that taking out Diaz-Canel is “100 percent a 2026 event.”
Russia condemns the “language of blackmail and threats” against Cuba, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week. Zakharova also condemned Washington for placing Cuba under “the full horror of illegitimate and illegal sanctions” for decades.
