Donald Trump’s fuel embargo intensifies Cuba’s energy crisis | Global News Podcast

Welcome to the Global News podcast on. YouTube, where we go behind the. headlines. Today, whether the US oil. blockade on Cuba could come close to. toppling the communist regime, and. whether Russia would dare send in its. oil tankers. We're joined from Havana by. our Cuba correspondent, Will Grant. Will, tell us about this embargo. >> It really is beginning to bite now, Alex. It's been. weeks since. the Trump administration carried out.

military action on Venezuela, removing. Cuba's most important ally in Nicolas. Maduro from power. And basically, the. immediate consequence from that has. been, first, the lack of Venezuelan oil. being provided to the island, which was. to the tune of somewhere in the region. of 35,000 barrels of oil a day. But it. was also bolstered by other energy. partners, particularly Mexico. Now, with. the Trump administration.

putting in place the threat of tariffs. to any potential energy partner to Cuba, we're really beginning to see the. effects of. of what you've rightly described as. a total energy blockade on the island. We're seeing people cooking with. firewood here in the capital, Havana. We're seeing. people going through the rubbish in. search of perhaps recyclable materials,

possibly even food. We're seeing rubbish. stack up at street corners because. there's simply no fuel to run the. state's fleet of garbage trucks to. collect it. And we're seeing the fact that there are. very, very few cars circulating on the. road. People are only permitted 20 L of fuel. at a time. It must be paid for in US. dollars, which of course many many. Cubans don't have access to at all. And.

when they do go. to the petrol pumps, they can only do so. through a government-run app. And the. queue, the virtual queue to get your. turn at the petrol pumps is sometimes. weeks long for half a tank of petrol. So, it is genuinely beginning to bite on. the streets. People are hurting. People. are suffering. And all they can do is. sort of hunker down and keep going. But. it is deeply tiring for them. >> You mentioned Venezuela, Will. Is the.

leadership in Cuba afraid of being. treated like Venezuela? What is. President Trump's goal here? >> It's quite hard to know. in in sort of exact terms because. everything seems to be based on on leaks. and rumors at this stage. And you don't. get many genuine leaks from the Cuban. government because it's so hermetically. sealed. So, it's sort of coming from the. Washington side more than anywhere else. But I'd say this. Washington's goal under President Trump.

is the goal that Washington has had for. many many decades in Cuba. And that is. regime change. That much we know. They've certainly made no bones about. that. The question I think is how they. go about doing that. Are they prepared. to do. a sort of Venezuelan version which is. that they're so aware of the dangers of. complete overnight removal of a regime. and the imposition of a sort of. Washington craven regime or one that is. more closely allied to Washington that.

they've shown themselves as reasonably. pragmatic in the Trump administration. I. happy to work with Delcy Rodríguez, the. former vice president in Venezuela under. Nicolás Maduro, and and sort of work. with the remnants of the Maduro regime. at least for now. Obviously, Cuba is a different place. It's It's question. It's it's had the. same government in place for 67 years uh. the revolutionary government. Um but it. does begin to suggest now that they are.

looking for a sort of Delcy figure in. Cuba. That is someone that they would be. prepared to work with in an interim. capacity. The latest suggestion is that. that might be Raul Castro's grandson. Everybody has always said that if there. is to be a sort of power brokering in. Cuba, it would have to be run through. Raul Castro. Even at 94 years old, he is. the sole decision-maker when it comes to. decisions of this of this importance.

The civilian government headed by. President Miguel Diaz-Canel simply. doesn't have the authority in those. terms to make those decisions. Now, there'll be lots of tensions between. differing factions within the Cuban. government. The a faction that is more. business- orientated and perhaps younger. and a faction that's more ideological. and older, but nevertheless, um it does seem that Washington's goal, Trump's aim in Cuba is to achieve um.

regime change. But if that means doing. it through an interim. personality and if that person uh is. directly related to Raul Castro, that. would be acceptable to Washington. It's. another question whether or not he can. sell that idea to the Cuban-American. diaspora in Florida, which is so. important. >> As you say, the oil embargo, the fuel. embargo really biting. Some in Cuba are. hoping that Russia might step in and.

fill the gap. Would it dare? >> Uh it's an interesting one. I mean, I. think Russia is the logical partner in. the sense that um it can do two things. One, it has the capacity, I think, even. though it is obviously engaged uh in in. its invasion of uh. Ukraine, and it needs its oil capacity. for other means. I think it would still. have the capacity, from what experts. tell me, to sort of continue to prop up. Cuba, at least to an extent, at least to.

get them through the hardest moments, as. they head into the to the. the hotter months in this country, where. air conditioning units will be wearing. and so on. So, there's a possibility. that it could do that. Now, would it do. that, given the threat of sanctions? There's been suggestions from a. spokesperson, again, one can't be sure. whether or not it's a bluff or it's. clear that they would be able to sort of. take on sanctions, much to a much better. extent than some of the other partners.

that Cuba has, for example, Mexico, because of the fact that bilateral trade. between the US and Russia isn't so. significant, that that it would make that much of an. impact. It's obviously a very large and. powerful country, and President Putin may decide that this. is something he wants to do. So far. though, there have been no sort of. knights on white horses riding over the. horizon to Cuba's rescue at all. None at.

all, whether or not that's Moscow, Vietnam, Iran, Mexico, Chile, any other nation that might be. inclined to help Cuba, simply hasn't. done. That's partly because of the. Trump's threats of. tariffs, and it's also, I think, because it is. such a delicate moment that they simply. don't want to cross Washington at this. particular moment, irrespective of the. tariffs. They're being told to step.

back, and they're doing so. The one. thing we've seen from Mexico is sends of. humanitarian aid into in form of baby. milk and rice and so on, but not that. one thing that that that the island most. desperately needs, which is crude oil. >> There was a time, Will, when the tourist. industry provided quite a lot of. much-needed hard foreign currency. Presumably, that is nigh on impossible. in these conditions.

>> Tourism has fallen off a cliff. It. really has. I mean, it was already very. low because of really from the the years. of the coronavirus onwards. It took a. huge hit during uh the COVID-19. restrictions. And has never quite recovered. Certainly. not to the level of the 5 million. visitors a year seen during the year. that Barack Obama came to Cuba in 2016. So, over the past decade, there's been a. steady decline to the point that it's.

just barely knocking on the door of 2. million visitors. That's, you know, 40%. of what it was at its height. Uh that is. naturally going to have a major effect. in terms of its foreign currency. earnings. Um and it is very, very. painful for an island which absolutely. depends on tourism to survive. People. here involved in tourism, I've spoken to. a lot of them over the years and and and. on this particular trip, say, you know, they're still here. They're still doing. their bit. They're still trying to make.

sure people come and can have a good. time and prop up the tourism industry. But the truth of the matter is it's a a. much, much harder thing to do when. there's so limited fuel to go around um. to to organize trips around the island. cuz you could get to one point and not. get back. And we know, of course, that. tour operators are not flying to the. island in some cases because they can't. guarantee, in fact, they've been told. they cannot refuel in Havana. So, then. it becomes just short-haul flights from. Cancun, from Miami, and so on. And we've.

seen flights by Air Canada completely. uh suspended. >> Last question, Will. Does the communist regime still have the. support. of Cuban people? >> It's dwindled, and it's not just. dwindled in this current crisis. It's. dwindled for for years now. Um, it it's a very very different generation. to the one that they called the original. generation of revolutionaries, the. contemporaries of Fidel and Raul Castro.

Um, those men and women built this Cuban. revolution and did so through love, sweat, and tears in essence. But young. people look at their cousins in Miami. and in Spain, uh, and in Europe, and so. on, and wonder why they are having to. struggle quite so hard on the island for. the basics. I spoke to a man who is in. his 40s, and he is cooking with firewood. in Havana, and his 9-year-old daughter. went to school with an empty stomach, with no breakfast that morning. That is.

galling. That is very very galling for a. society that has done what it's been. asked to by the Cuban revolution. That. that is sacrificed its wages, received. very very small wages, uh, for its work. over the years in exchange for a sort of. social safety net of free health care, good education, and security, and so on. Now all of the pillars of the revolution. are crumbling in those areas, and you're. still not getting wages. You still can't. get on. You're trapped in essentially a. cycle of eternal poverty, which is true,

of course, in many parts of Latin. America, but feels particularly galling. to people here because they feel like. they were never given the chance to get. on. They could never make a living out. of construction. They could never make a. living out of owning a a small store, and so on and so forth. The revolution. is also splitting into a society where. there are those who do have access to. these things, who do have access to. dollars and petrol and cars and support. The private sector are doing okay even. in this current environment, and those.

who are completely reliant on state. wages in local currency, those people. are extremely poor, are suffering very, very hard, and this bleaker outlook. looks like it's only going to get worse. in the coming weeks and months. >> Thanks, Will. Will Grant, our Cuba. correspondent. If you like this episode, do subscribe to us here on YouTube, and. you can subscribe to the BBC Global News. Podcast wherever you get your BBC. podcasts. And if you have an idea for a. story you think we should cover, please.

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