The Cuban Government accused the United States of “intimidating with threats” States and companies that export or transport fuels to the island, denouncing as “illegal” actions that it classified as “piracy and pillage”.
© Lusa
08/10/2026
by
Lusa
“ A import of fuels by state and private entities in Cuba, from any country, is legal, according to national legislation and international law ", said on Wednesday the island's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, in a statement published on social networks.
In a reaction to the announcement by the US authorities of the seizure of more than 600 thousand gallons (2.2 million litres) of biodiesel destined for Cuba, valued at around $2.8 million (€2.5 million), Cossío maintained that “it is illegal to intimidate sovereign states with threats of retaliation by the US Government if they export fuel to Cuba, or exporting companies or carriers from any country for participating in such commercial operations.”.
The diplomat also described as illegal the fact that “ships that transport fuel to Cuba, such as piracy and pillage, are pursued and interceded in international waters”.
“To dispose, store, distribute and market this fuel in Cuban territory is also legal, as it is to transport it in international waters,” said Cossío.
In addition, the deputy minister denounced that it is “illegal, immoral and criminal to subject a whole people to economic asphyxiation as collective punishment for political purposes”.
Agencies from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security announced at a press conference on Wednesday that they confiscated 90 shipments of fuel, 71 of which were in the Port of Everglades, Florida, and 19 in the Port of Houston, Texas, which were intended for Enecec, a Cuban company subject to US sanctions.
“ This is a deliberate attempt to circumvent US sanctions and everything is currently under investigation,” said José R. Figueroa, special agent responsible for the National Security Investigation Office in Miami.
The seizure of fuel occurs in the context of the deep energy crisis that Cuba has been going through since mid-2024, aggravated since January by the US oil blockade, a measure qualified by the United Nations as contrary to international law.
The situation has paralysed almost entirely the island’s economy, which has been going through the worst crisis in decades, with a shortage of food, medicines and other basic resources, to which daily power cuts are added due to frequent breakdowns in obsolete power plants and fuel shortages.
To this is added rounds of sanctions imposed by Washington against vital sectors of the island's economy, which, in addition, threaten companies that maintain trade relations or have supported the Cuban Government financially, materially or technologically.