Trump Makes Shocking Carve-Out in Cruel Cuba Fuel Blockade

President Donald Trump has been facilitating shipments of oil to private businesses in Cuba while cutting off government-run institutions for months.

Since capturing Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, the United States has barred Cuba from receiving any Venezuelan oil and threatened any countries that export oil to the island country. But since early February, the U.S. has exported 30,000 barrels of oil to Cuba’s small but important private sector, Reuters reported Wednesday.

This means that while private businesses, like foreign-owned hotels, will receive a boon amid the ongoing blockade, state-run entities will suffer. Speaking to NBC News’s Meet the Press Sunday, Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío called Trump’s fuel policy an “energy asphyxiation,” and claimed it had already caused mass disruptions to Cuba’s health care system.

????️In an exclusive interview with Meet the Press, Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernández de Cossío says “our military is always prepared” but “we don't pose any threat to the United States” after President Trump threatened a U.S. takeover of Cuba. pic.twitter.com/B4NUZSanYF

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Secretary of State Marco Rubio said this is all part of the plan. The policy was “entirely designed to put the private sector and individual private Cubans—not affiliated with the government, not affiliated with the military—in a privileged position.”

In February, the U.S. Bureau of Industry and Security released guidance that authorized the export of gas to eligible Cuban businesses, specifying that the fuel was not available for resale. Fuel soon began to trickle into private companies that were initially crippled by the U.S. blockade, three Cuban businesspeople told Reuters.

Cuba has historically required 100,000 barrels of oil per day to fuel cars, planes, and power plants. Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel announced last week the country had not received any ​fuel in three months. The Trump administration is reportedly pressing Diaz-Canel to step down as part of the president’s so-called “friendly takeover” of the island. Cuba has already outlined some changes it plans to make to open up the island’s economy to the U.S.

In 2026, 61 ships carrying goods imported by private companies arrived in Cuba, including fuel. While overall arrivals are down, there has been an increase in shipments originating from a key energy corridor on America’s Gulf Coast, according to vessel tracking data from LSEG Data & Analytics analyzed by Reuters.