First Deputy Minister of Energy and Mines of Cuba, Argelio Jesus Abad, speaking at the VIII Energy Ministerial Meeting of the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), held in Montevideo, decried the US aggressive policy.

  In his remarks, he referred to President Donald Trump’s Executive Order of January 29, which declares the Caribbean island an “unusual and extraordinary threat.”

  This, he said, is the pretext for imposing an energy blockade that “seeks to suffocate our people” and threatens to impose tariffs on any country that exports fuel to Cuba.

  But the offensive didn’t stop there, he pointed out. On May 1, 2026, a new Executive Order was signed establishing secondary sanctions in the energy sector.

  This means that the United States has internationalized the blockade, threatening to punish any person or entity in the world that maintains relations with Cuba, even without having interests in U.S. territory.

  He stated that the White House’s declared goal is “to provoke the collapse of our economy, subdue our people, and achieve regime change.”

  Abad shared figures at the CELAC forum illustrating the devastating impact of this U.S. policy on the Caribbean nation.

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