The Prime Minister of Cuba and member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of Cuba, Manuel Marrero Cruz, denounced the sanctions imposed by the United States government this Thursday, June 11, against the state-owned company Unión Cuba-Petróleo (Cupet).
Marrero Cruz described the measure as a new attack directed at the Cuban people, warning that this provision represents another tightening of the energy blockade “and its cruel impact on vital services and the daily lives of Cubans,” he emphasized.
For his part, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez expressed his rejection of the decision and accused U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio of acting out of ambition, presidential aspirations, and the vindictive motivations of the political elite that promoted his institutional career.
The head of Cuban diplomacy asserted that this move seeks to reinforce the economic and energy supply impediments that weigh on the Caribbean nation. Similarly, he stated that, to justify such actions, the U.S. side is dispensing with the usual arguments of its State Department and resorting to aggressive and vulgar falsehoods characteristic of the most hostile sectors against Cuba.
The Cuban officials’ statements come after the U.S. government added Cupet to the list of Specially Designated Entities of the Office of Foreign Assets Control, an agency within the Treasury Department.
With this inclusion, the U.S. prohibits its citizens from conducting transactions or business with the Cuban entity unless they have specific licenses. Furthermore, the regulation extends the risk of commercial and financial penalties to all foreign corporations and individuals that maintain operational exchanges with Cupet.
The implementation of this sanction intensifies the oil blockade implemented since January of this year by the administration of President Donald Trump, whose consequences throughout this period have led to shortages, humanitarian emergencies, and the paralysis of the productive sector.
The impact is critical because Cupet is the corporation responsible for managing the reception, extraction, processing, and distribution of hydrocarbons in Cuba. This company’s logistical supply chain serves public service stations as well as state-owned enterprises, power plants, government ministries, healthcare institutions, and drinking water distribution systems.
Washington’s rhetoric justifies the resolution under the argument of supposedly protecting civil liberties, while simultaneously accusing the Cuban government of embezzlement and diverting available energy resources for institutional, military, and political propaganda purposes, holding it responsible for the continuous power outages and fuel shortages.
However, the United States tries to ignore that the limitations and problems affecting the population of Cuba are a result of the White House’s financial, commercial, and energy hostilities.
This latest aggression by the United States was carried out under the auspices of Executive Order 14404, issued on May 1st, a legal provision under which the Treasury Department had already penalized the Business Administration Group (GAE), its top management, and the joint venture Moa Nickel S.A.
IMAGE CREDIT: The US aggression against Cupet was carried out under the auspices of Executive Order 14404, issued on May 1st. Photo: EFE
[ SOURCE: teleSUR ]
