Cuba’s government rejected a request from the U.S. Embassy in Havana to import diesel for its generators, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said, as Washington continues to impose fuel-related pressure on the island. The officials said Cuba’s response was delivered while U.S. officials were weighing whether to reduce embassy staffing because the mission lacked enough diesel to run its generators.
The officials said the U.S. request was tied to operational constraints inside Cuba, and they described the situation as part of a broader energy shortfall affecting the country. They also said Cuba’s rejection was relevant to U.S. discussions about staffing changes that could, in turn, prompt parallel steps by the United States and Cuba in their diplomatic missions.
The story said the White House, the State Department, and Cuba’s embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The report also said Cuba’s rejection was first reported by The Washington Post.
The officials linked the diesel standoff to the Trump administration’s continuing fuel blockade and to a wider diplomatic pressure campaign aimed at President Miguel Díaz-Canel’s government. The report said Trump and Rubio have said they want Cuba to release political prisoners and move toward political and economic liberalization in exchange for lifting sanctions, and they have framed Cuba as a target for expanded U.S. influence.
Cuba has struggled with reduced oil supplies since the U.S. removed Venezuela’s president and halted critical petroleum shipments from an ally, the report said. It added that Cuba relies on natural gas, solar power and its own oil to run thermoelectric plants, but those sources have not been enough to meet demand, leaving the country with power outages that have disrupted daily life and services.
The report said many residents of the island nation of about 11 million have had trouble keeping food from spoiling and that hospitals have canceled surgeries. It also said the leading university has reduced classes due to power outages and transportation disruptions, describing the outages as worsening.
The diesel dispute also intersected with U.S. efforts to pressure Cuba’s leadership politically as the administration seeks dramatic change. The report said Trump has for months suggested Cuba’s government was on the verge of collapse, and after Cuba’s electric grid collapsed earlier this week, he told reporters he believed he would soon have “the honor of taking Cuba,” saying the country was “very weakened.”
The report further said Trump suggested Cuba’s leaders should avoid the fate of former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, who was ousted in a U.S. military operation in January and later transferred to New York to face federal drug conspiracy charges. It said Venezuela had provided Cuba with heavily subsidized oil.
The report said any potential embassy staffing reduction was not expected to happen immediately because the U.S. believes it had enough diesel in reserve to last for another month, according to one official. It also described limited options for fuel reserves inside Cuba, saying fuel is tightly controlled by the Cuban government and providing an example in which the Spanish Embassy in Havana had excess fuel that it offered to other European embassies, only to have permission denied by Cuban authorities.
Díaz-Canel said last week that Cuba held talks with the U.S. government, which the report said was the first time Cuba confirmed the ongoing speculation about discussions with the Trump administration. The report said humanitarian organizations began delivering aid by air Friday, including solar panels, food and medicine, and it added that Cuba was preparing to receive a shipment of Russian oil later this month, its first in the past three months.