U.S. Companies Greenlit to Sell Oil to Cuban Private Sector as Washington Moves to Make Island Economically “Dependent”

The U.S. Treasury Department announced on Wednesday that U.S. companies can now apply for licenses to sell oil to the Cuban private sector. The oil being resold by U.S. firms will come from Venezuela, whose government the Trump administration decapitated on January 3.

“We want to open the spigot of U.S. fuel exports to Cuba, so long as the ultimate beneficiary is the private sector,” a source with knowledge of the administration’s plan told the Miami Herald. “There is nothing more in line with the Donroe Doctrine than making Cuba dependent on the United States.”

The Trump administration threatened tariffs to impose what amounts to an oil blockade on the island January 29. But Wednesday’s announcement is effectively a carve out to the blockade. It sheds light on the economic facet of Washington’s evolving regime-change strategy.

While there will be no quantity limits for the oil exports, according to reports, U.S. firms will remain barred from selling oil to the Cuban state.

Washington seeks to increase leverage over Havana by simultaneously engineering state collapse while empowering the private sector. The result is rising inequality, increasing hardship and death: Private-sector vans continue to have fuel to deliver luxury goods to those who can afford it, while public hospitals run short on fuel.

The Cuban government authorized private fuel imports earlier this month.

“We could very well end up having a friendly takeover of Cuba,” Trump told reporters on Friday.