Trump Issues Stark Ultimatum to Cuba: ‘Make a Deal Before It’s Too Late’ as US Cracks Down on Venezuelan Oil
- US President Donald Trump warns Cuba that it will receive ZERO oil or money from Venezuela unless it strikes a deal with Washington
- Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel defiantly rejects Trump’s threat, saying the US has no moral authority to dictate what Cuba does
- The US is enforcing a strict oil blockade on Venezuela, Cuba’s biggest oil supplier, with no cargoes departing for the Caribbean country since the seizure of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro
- Cuba is on the brink of collapse, with widespread power outages, food and fuel shortages, and a record-breaking exodus of its citizens
US President Donald Trump has dramatically escalated his war of words with Cuba, warning the communist-run island that it must strike a deal with Washington “before it is too late”. In a stark ultimatum, Trump vowed to prevent oil and money from entering Cuba unless it complies with US demands.
The threat is the latest salvo in Trump’s campaign to bring regional powers in line with the US, and underscores the administration’s ambition to dominate the Western Hemisphere. Cuba, which has long been a nemesis of the US, is heavily reliant on Venezuelan oil imports, but the US is enforcing a strict oil blockade on the OPEC country.
“THERE WILL BE NO MORE OIL OR MONEY GOING TO CUBA — ZERO! I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE,” Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. “Cuba lived, for many years, on large amounts of OIL and MONEY from Venezuela.”
But Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel was quick to reject Trump’s threat, saying the US had no moral authority to dictate what Cuba does. “Cuba is a free, independent, and sovereign nation. Nobody dictates what we do,” Díaz-Canel said on X. “Cuba does not attack; it has been attacked by the US for 66 years, and it does not threaten; it prepares, ready to defend the homeland to the last drop of blood.”
The US intervention in Venezuela has pushed Cuba to the edge, with widespread power outages, food and fuel shortages, and a record-breaking exodus of its citizens. The CIA has painted a grim picture of Cuba’s economic and political situation, but its assessments offer no clear support for Trump’s prediction that the island is “ready to fall”.
As the standoff between the US and Cuba intensifies, Mexico has emerged as a critical alternative oil supplier to the island, but the supply remains small. The US is also progressing on a $US2 billion deal to supply up to 50 million barrels of Venezuelan oil to the US, with proceeds to be deposited in US Treasury-supervised accounts.
The situation in Cuba is dire, with vast swaths of the island living without electricity for much of the day, and even the capital, Havana, crippled by hours-long rolling blackouts. Shortages of food, fuel, and medicine have put Cubans on edge, and prompted a record-breaking exodus, primarily to the US, in the past five years.
As the crisis deepens, one thing is clear: the US is determined to bring Cuba to heel, and the island’s communist government is refusing to back down. The world waits with bated breath as the standoff between the two nations reaches a boiling point.