President Donald Trump said Sunday his administration would allow a Russia-owned tanker carrying an estimated 730,000 barrels of oil to reach Cuba, easing the fuel blockade that has worsened the island’s humanitarian crisis.
Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump said, “if a country wants to send some oil into Cuba right now, I have no problem,” stepping back from an earlier threat to tariff any nation that supplies fuel to the island. Cuba has received no oil imports since Jan. 9, triggering nationwide blackouts, food shortages and shortages of critical hospital supplies.
Trump insisted the oil aboard the Russian vessel would have little effect, declaring, “Cuba is finished.” He added, “They have a bad regime, and they have very bad and corrupt leadership,” saying whether or not they receive a shipment “is not going to matter.”
The New York Times reported the U.S. Coast Guard would not intercept the Russian tanker, Anatoly Kolodkin, as it approaches Cuba unless it received orders to do so. The vessel is expected to arrive by Monday night and could provide several weeks’ worth of fuel to the island.
International activists in recent days have delivered tons of food, medicine and other aid to Cuba, but observers say those shipments are only a partial remedy for damage caused by decades of U.S. economic pressure and the current fuel restrictions.
Trump imposed the fuel blockade in January, labeling Cuba an “unusual and extraordinary threat” to U.S. national security. Earlier this month he threatened to “take” Cuba by force, calling it a “very weakened nation,” prompting Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel to vow “impregnable resistance.” Reports say the Trump administration is pressing for Díaz-Canel’s removal in talks with the Cuban government.
In response to the president’s threats, Reps. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.) and Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) introduced legislation to bar the administration from using federal funds for any attack on Cuba without congressional authorization. Jayapal warned that unilateral military action would endanger troops and civilians, waste taxpayer dollars and exceed the president’s constitutional authority to declare war.
Originally published by Common Dreams, this article is republished under a Creative Commons license.
