Now, Trump has declared that these shipments will cease. Reduce off from its essential supply of crude oil, Cuba finds itself uncovered, a circumstance that the US president desires to reap the benefits of as he decrees the dying of Castroism. He has additionally determined to impose tariffs on different nations that present Cuba with oil, in search of to additional isolate it to be able to pressure negotiations.
The final ship carrying crude oil from Venezuela arrived in December 2025 with 598,000 barrels. That oil, plus the 84,900 barrels despatched by Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex) per week after Maduro’s seize, is all of the regime has to outlive the approaching weeks. The regime was relying on help from Mexico, however after strain from Trump, President Claudia Sheinbaum has, in the interim, promised meals and medication however not crude oil.
In line with the consulting agency Kpler, Cuban oil reserves are in important situation. Imported crude oil is important for {the electrical} system, transportation and, subsequently, the financial system. The Cuban management seems to don’t have any different various than to decide on between negotiating with Trump to raise the blockade or main the nation into an financial paralysis.
Meals or the Web
One of many points that might be on the forefront, if the Cuban regime lastly sits down with Trump to barter a manner out of its present scenario, might be web entry, a key concern of these against the federal government.
The Trump administration anticipated this in a June 2025 truth sheet, asserting elevated restrictions on the island and an amplification of “efforts to help the Cuban folks by means of the enlargement of web providers, free press, free enterprise, free affiliation, and lawful journey.”
In 2015, when web providers started to develop in Cuba, many Cubans had entry to the online for the primary time of their lives, and the influence was profound. The regime misplaced the monopoly on info that had existed for years. Because the nation’s solely authorized political occasion, the Communist Celebration had been capable of assemble the nation’s narrative because it noticed match by means of its media shops. The emergence of social media, the place activists, artists, and opponents of the regime have been capable of share their work and their messages, together with the rise of impartial media, empowered a dissident civil society that had lengthy struggled to be heard.
Six years later, in 2021, the opposition to the regime was sturdy sufficient to aim to vary the nation’s establishment with requires an finish of repression and human rights abuses. Residents took to the streets in virtually each metropolis. They demanded freedom, an finish to the dictatorship, and a brand new starting for the nation. The regime responded with violence: one dying, greater than a thousand political prisoners, and compelled exile for others. Lastly, it tightened surveillance and entry to the web, which had been central to the opposition motion.
Since then, Castroism has introduced an elevated focus to regulate of the web because it tightens the screws of repression to forestall one other rebellion.
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