Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla urged the international community to mobilize urgently to prevent a disaster in his country, which he says is under a US energy blockade. Speaking to the UN Security Council on Tuesday, Rodriguez called for solidarity to avert a humanitarian catastrophe that could be imposed through arms or the fuel blockade.
US threats and economic pressures
President Donald Trump has openly considered taking over communist Cuba, suggesting that after the US attack in January that ousted Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela, Havana could be his next target for military action and significant change. The decades-long US trade embargo, imposed after Fidel Castro took power in 1959, has contributed to dire economic conditions, including shortages of food, medicine, and other essentials. Nationwide power blackouts are common.
Impact of Venezuela oil cutoff
Conditions worsened when Trump cut off oil supplies from Cuba's ally Venezuela following Maduro's ouster. The Trump administration further tightened the screws last week by indicting Raul Castro over the downing of two small US-based planes in 1996, fueling fears that the United States is seeking a pretext to overthrow the government in Havana. The day after the indictment, Secretary of State Marco Rubio warned Cuba that the US is laser-focused on changing the communist system.
Cuba's response
On Tuesday, Rodriguez called the indictment politically motivated and denied US allegations that Cuba poses a national security threat. 'It is an idea that goes against logic and common sense,' he told the council. 'Let Cuba live in peace.'
