On Thursday, June 11, 2026, the United States sanctioned the Cuban state oil company Unión Cuba-Petróleo (CUPET) as part of its measures of economic pressure against Havana, announced the Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.
Consequently, the company, which controls the extraction of Cuban crude oil fields as well as its refining and fuel distribution, will not be able to establish any type of financial or business relationship in the United States.
“The communist government of Cuba “It has been using energy as a weapon for a long time, both to repress and to feed a regime kleptocracy for its own benefit,” Rubio explained in a statement.
CUPET joined the list of the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the Department of the Treasury.
In his statement, Rubio accused the company of “reselling countless barrels of low energy on the secondary market, hoarding energy supplies for its military, intelligence and repressive forces, and rationing energy as a tool of social control.”
Cuba accuses Rubio of using “usual and vulgar lies”
The Government of Cuba accused this Thursday the Secretary of State of the United States, Marco Rubio, of “further strengthening” the economic and energy siege against Cuba with “usual and vulgar lies.”
This is how the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Bruno Rodríguez, reacted after the announcement of sanctions against the state oil company that is dedicated to the extraction, refining and production of crude oil, which according to Washington, includes key assets that were “illegally expropriated from American owners.”
In a message on social networks, Rodríguez denounced that “the Secretary of State of the US regime, due to ambitions of conquest, presidential aspirations and vengeful feelings of the elitist claque that promoted his political career, now further reinforces the economic and energy siege against Cuba.”
“To justify it, he does not resort to excuses prepared by his State Department, but to usual and vulgar lies, the most aggressive, uneducated and rabid among the enemies of Cuba,” added the head of Cuban diplomacy.
