Francisco Pichón, Cuba’s permanent representative to the United Nations, said he had begun formal negotiations with the United States on fuel supplies to Cuba amid severe fuel shortages caused by the U.S. oil blockade.
According to Pichon, members of the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs and the Trump administration are discussing ways to “ensure access to fuel for humanitarian purposes.”
The UN representative said these fuel supplies would be used for “emergency response operations” and to protect access to “critical services” for “vulnerable people and groups.”
The recent U.S. oil blockade has led to a growing humanitarian crisis across the country. Power outages are prolonged in many areas, hospitals are under increasing pressure as life-saving treatments are cut off, and the economy is collapsing as schools and workplaces have their operating hours cut.
The U.S. economic pressure campaign is widely seen as an attempt to bring down the Cuban regime or force the Cuban leader to make political concessions to Washington. Senior Republicans in the United States have repeatedly suggested that some form of regime change is imminent in Cuba.
At the Shield of the Americas summit last Saturday, President Trump promised that “big changes” were coming to Cuba and “a bad regime that has been bad for a long time.”
On Monday, President Trump repeated the warning, claiming Cuba could soon face a “friendly” or “unfriendly” takeover by the United States.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham also told Fox News on Sunday, “The liberation of Cuba is upon us. It is only a matter of time.”
There are also reports that an economic deal between Washington and Havana will be announced soon, but the ‘unfriendly’ option remains a possibility. The U.S. administration’s attack on Iran or the operation to arrest Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro could serve as examples for potential military operations against Cuba.
Read more: U.S. concludes economic negotiations with Cuba
Ricardo Torres, a Cuban economist and researcher at the Center for Latin American and Latino Studies at American University, said: Latin America Report Describes the current Cuban crisis and the various iterations of regime change that may occur as a result.
“The emotional and material reserves that the Cuban people had in the past are now almost exhausted,” the economist said. “If the United States strictly enforces the oil embargo, a negotiated solution will be inevitable, given the limited support Cuba receives from its allies.”
Venezuela, Cuba’s closest regional ally, cut off oil supplies to the island after U.S. forces arrested President Nicolas Maduro, and in early March an oil tanker heading to Cuba from traditional ally Russia changed course due to suspected U.S. pressure.
Torres commented on recent revelations about UN-US negotiations, noting that discussions between the White House and the UN would likely be limited to “providing aid” rather than paving the way for easing tensions.
He claimed that the United States would “(probably) favor a complete (political) transition in Cuba and an end to communist rule.” Otherwise, “they may be prepared to support a step-by-step agreement that starts with building a more stable economic base and proceeds from there,” the researchers concluded.
Featured Image: A Cuban horse-drawn carriage during Cuba’s ‘Período Especial’. The term was used to describe Cuba’s economic struggles in the 1990s following the collapse of the Soviet Union. The scale of Cuba’s current fuel shortage has not been seen since ‘Período Especial’.
Image source: Nick via Wikimedia Commons
patent: Creative Commons License
