Rep. Carlos A. Gimenez (R-Fla.) has fired back at Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s statements against the U.S.’s recent sanctions on Cuba’s state-owned gas company Unión Cuba-Petróleo (CUPET), known as CUPET.
“Imperial perversity knows no bounds,” Diaz-Canel wrote on X. “After prohibiting any country that tries to supply fuel to Cuba, they now target CUPET to tighten the oil blockade even further, imposing new threats on those who trade with the Cuban company.”
“They pretend to justify their crime with absurd pretexts, which only seek to hide their criminal objective: to strangle the Cuban people, to make them surrender through hunger, needs, and disease. We are witnessing the rebirth of fascism in its purest state,” Diaz-Canel concluded.
“No cosmetic fix will save them from what’s coming their way. You’re not fooling anyone! Your cruelty and profound incompetence have destroyed Cuba’s economy and forced the people to live in utter poverty,” Congressman Gimenez responded.
State Department Announces Santions On CUPET
Recently, the U.S. State Department announced that it will sanction CUPET pursuant to President Donald Trump’s executive order "IMPOSING SANCTIONS ON THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR REPRESSION IN CUBA AND FOR THREATS TO UNITED STATES NATIONAL SECURITY AND FOREIGN POLICY."
The directive broadens sanctions on government officials, agents, “or material supporters of the Cuban government,” according to the State Department’s statement.
“Cuba’s Communist elites have weaponized energy as a tool of social control and kleptocratic profit,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio wrote on X.
In his announcement, Secretary Rubio accused the Cuban regime of stealing and hoarding available fuel for decades, “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,” while the Cuban people suffered from blackouts and fuel shortages that took citizens weeks to fill up their vehicles.
Secretary Rubio affirmed that although President Trump wants a better future for the Cuban people, “the U.S. 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.”
