Cuba has run out of diesel and oil, energy minister says
The country’s Minister of Energy, Vicente de la O Levy, said that diesel and fuel oil are completely exhausted in Cuba.
In an interview with state media, de la O Levy said there was limited gas available but Cuba’s energy system was in a “critical” situation as a US-led oil blockade of the country tightened supplies.
Scattered protests against power outages broke out in Cuba’s capital Havana on Wednesday, according to the Reuters news agency.
The US this week renewed its offer to send $100m (£74m) in aid to the country in exchange for “meaningful reforms to Cuba’s communist system”.
“The sum of the different types of fuel: crude oil, fuel oil, which we definitely don’t have; diesel, which we definitely don’t have at all – I repeat – all we have is gas from our wells, where production is increasing,” de la O Levy said.
He stated that some parts of the capital Havana, which is under the US blockade, were subjected to 20 to 22 hour blackout periods due to the blockade.
He also acknowledged that the situation in the country was “extremely tense.”
While the country’s hospitals were unable to operate normally, schools and government offices had to close. Tourism, Cuba’s economic engine, was also affected.
Cuba normally relies on Venezuela and Mexico to supply oil to its refining system. However, after US President Donald Trump threatened tariffs on countries sending fuel to Cuba, the two countries largely cut off the supply.
Last week, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Havana had rejected a US offer of $100 million (£74 million) in humanitarian aid, a claim Cuba denied.
The U.S. State Department repeated its offer on Wednesday, saying humanitarian aid would be distributed in coordination with the Catholic Church and “credible” humanitarian organizations.
He continued: “It is up to the Cuban regime to decide whether to accept our offer of aid or to reject critical life-saving aid and ultimately be accountable to the Cuban people for standing in the way of critical aid.”
Washington’s blockade of the country escalated in early May with a series of sanctions that the United States said targeted senior Cuban officials. He committed “human rights violations”.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez called the sanctions “illegal and abusive.”
