Cuba Confirms Negotiations With US After Oil Blockade

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel has said his government was in talks with the Trump administration to find solutions to the two countries’ differences, as the Caribbean country continues to face the effects of a US oil blockade.

Díaz-Canel said no fuel had entered Cuba in three months.

Talks between the two nations were in their initial stages, said Díaz-Canel, who is leading the Cuban side of negotiations, in a national broadcast at the weekend.

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Cuba was in “deep trouble” as he threatened a “friendly takeover”.

Cuba is experiencing several blackouts as the island struggles with fuel shortages, which have been made worse by pressure from the US.

Since returning to the White House, Trump has made clear his desire to change Cuba’s leadership. He has also threatened tariffs on goods imported into the US from any country that gives Cuba oil.

The White House told the BBC: “As the president stated, we are talking to Cuba, whose leaders should make a deal, which he believes ‘would be very easily made’”.

Havana relies heavily on imported fuel for its electricity and the US has seized a number of oil shipments bound for Cuba.

Venezuela was believed to have sent around 35,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba, providing about half the island’s oil needs. But Washington’s Venezuela raid – and capture of President Nicolás Maduro – in early January has disrupted the arrangement.

In his national broadcast, Díaz-Canel said not having fuel enter Cuba for the past three months has led to the gradual decline of diesel and fuel oil reserves. Given this, the country’s electrical grid has become increasingly “unstable”, he said.