Cuba’s health minister warned in an interview with The Associated Press that the island’s health care system is being pushed to the brink as a U.S.-linked fuel squeeze worsens an energy crisis that has already strained hospitals and clinics. José Ángel Portal Miranda, speaking Feb. 20, said the deterioration has moved beyond an economic squeeze and into what he called “basic human safety,” describing a situation that he said is increasingly affecting emergency response and essential medical services.
Portal said ambulances have been struggling to find fuel to respond to emergencies, and that deteriorated hospitals have been hit by persistent power outages. He also said flights bringing vital supplies have been suspended after Cuba said it is now unable to refuel airplanes in its airports, a change that he described as part of the escalating disruption.
Portal said the impact is spreading to chronic care. He told the AP that 5 million people in Cuba who live with chronic illnesses will see their medications or treatments affected, including 16,000 cancer patients who require radiotherapy and another 12,400 undergoing chemotherapy. He said cardiovascular care, orthopedics, oncology and care for critically ill patients that require electrical backup are among the most impacted services.
He also cited kidney disease treatments and emergency ambulance services as added areas of strain. The minister said the constraints are likely to worsen in the coming weeks even as Cuba’s government tries to adjust, including by installing solar panels in clinics and prioritizing care for children and the elderly.
Portal said the government has placed restrictions on more energy-reliant technologies, including CT scans and laboratory tests, which he said would require doctors to rely on more basic methods. He framed the situation as an “energy siege” with implications for the lives of Cubans and their families, and he warned that the chain of shortages is now reaching the capacity to deliver high levels of care.
The health minister said Cuba’s energy crisis escalated last month after a new U.S. action tied to oil shipments. He said U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order that would impose a tariff on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba, describing it as arriving shortly after Trump deposed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and said no more Venezuelan oil would go to Cuba.
Cuba, Portal said, produces only about 40% of its own fuel and has largely depended on allies such as Venezuela, Mexico and Russia to cover its energy deficit. With those shipments described as having dried up, he said the fuel blockade’s effects have intensified, contributing to worsening blackouts and rationing, including changes such as buses cutting routes and gasoline being sold only in foreign currency.
In a separate account in the AP report, Aniliet Rodríguez, a 25-year-old pregnant woman who was admitted in January to a maternal care center for extreme anemia, described what she said had changed since that month: “There’s no bread, no milk for nutrition … . There are no medicines.” The AP report also noted that Cuba’s universal, free health model includes local clinics on nearly every block and state-subsidized medicine, but said the system has been in crisis for years amid shortages of supplies, staff and medicine.
The report said thousands of doctors have emigrated after taking state wages that can hardly afford basic necessities, and that hospitals have deteriorated further in the years since the COVID-19 pandemic. It also said medicine shortages have pushed some people toward buying on the black market.