With President Trump and Secretary Rubio, there is no confusion or doubt about the nature of the regime in Cuba. They know exactly what they're dealing with.
I commend them for once again demonstrating true American leadership and using every tool at our disposal to hold the Castro regime accountable for its crimes.
The days of these murderous dictatorships in our hemisphere are numbered.
Today, I am sanctioning Cuba’s state-owned energy company, Unión Cuba-Petróleo (CUPET), under President Trump’s EO 14404. Cuba’s Communist elites have weaponized energy as a tool of social control and kleptocratic profit.
For decades, the regime has stolen and hoarded available fuel — using it for the Castros’ private jet, the security services forces used to repress the Cuban people, to keep empty tourist hotels lit up, and to bus people in for fake protests and political stunts — all while the Cuban people have suffered blackouts and waited weeks to fill their cars.
President Trump wants a new future for the Cuban people with greater economic and political freedom and opportunity. Until then, we will continue to target the Communist regime’s ability to leverage its energy trade to further its corrupt agenda and violently repress the Cuban people.