U.S. Oil Pressure Tightens Grip on Cuba

U.S. tariffs on countries that supply oil to Cuba have helped cut off fuel. Power outages now disrupt water, internet and telephone services. The Trump administration is using economic pressure to push for changes to Cuba’s political system; people on the island face the resulting shortages and worsening financial problems. At the United Nations, the pressure has a name: an embargo, backed by the economic reach of the United States.

A vote without enforcement

On Wednesday, the U.N. General Assembly voted 130-17 to condemn the U.S. economic embargo, with 25 abstentions. The resolution marked the 34th consecutive year the assembly has condemned it. But the vote isn’t legally binding. It records opposition; it doesn’t force Washington to change course.

Support fell from the previous year, when more than 160 nations backed the measure and 12 abstained. For the first time in 34 years, Western countries including Germany, Italy and Latvia abstained. Bosnia, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Lithuania, Morocco, North Macedonia, Paraguay and Slovenia voted against the resolution, most of them for the first time. Those shifts followed a U.S. campaign to influence the vote.

Before the vote, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez described the power imbalance: “A great power is attacking through economic war a member state of this organization.” He added, “Cuba is not a threat. The blockade is a threat.” The General Assembly could condemn the policy, but its resolution had no legal force to stop it.

Fuel, services and economic pressure

In late January, President Donald Trump announced tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba. The warning effectively cut off fuel supplies, contributing to outages that affect water, internet and telephone services. Cuba already faced power outages, shortages and worsening financial problems as the administration stepped up economic pressure to seek changes to the island’s political system.

The United States first imposed the embargo in 1960, after Fidel Castro led a revolution that toppled dictator Fulgencio Batista and nationalized properties belonging to U.S. citizens and corporations. The island has endured decades of economic and financial hardship, and fuel shortages worsened after the tariff announcement. Basic service disruptions carry costs for people on the island, while governments make decisions about pressure and policy.

A podium becomes a stage for power

Tensions erupted in a public confrontation at the United Nations. On Tuesday, U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Mike Waltz and Rodríguez shouted at each other during a General Assembly debate on the embargo. After Waltz criticized Cuba’s socialist government, Rodríguez walked to the podium and called him a liar while seeking a point of order.

Waltz said, “This individual needs to back away from this podium. He's not going to intimidate me in the United States of America.” As U.N. security and personnel intervened, he added, “You understand who you're dealing with? This is America. Back up.” Rodríguez later wrote on X that Waltz was speaking at the U.N., not at a White House national security meeting. He accused the U.S. government of launching “another desperate attempt to justify its economic aggression against Cuba and its criminal energy blockade.”

Waltz urged member nations to vote against the resolution, saying their vote was “the only thing standing between the corrupt, kleptocratic communist regime and using this body and your vote for another propaganda victory at the expense of the Cuban people.” The resolution passed, but it can’t compel the U.S. government to lift the embargo. The report describes no grassroots or mutual-aid response to the shortages; people facing service disruptions remain on the receiving end of decisions made by states.