US sanctions Cuba’s state-owned energy company: Rubio

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions on Thursday against the Union Cuba-Petroleo (CUPET), Cuba’s state-owned energy company.

Rubio said the measures target CUPET under President Donald Trump’s Executive Order 14404, as part of a broader effort to pressure the Cuban government.

"Cuba’s Communist elites have weaponized energy as a tool of social control and kleptocratic profit," he wrote on the US social media platform X.

“For decades, the regime has stolen and hoarded available fuel -- 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 -- all while the Cuban people have suffered blackouts and waited weeks to fill their cars.”

Rubio said Trump wants a future for the Cuban people with "greater" economic and political freedom and opportunity.

"Until then, we 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," he added.

‘Stop the collective punishment’

Trump previously said his administration intends to focus more closely on Cuba after dealing with the war against Iran.

The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and several members of his inner circle, including relatives of former leader Raul Castro.

Lianys Torres Rivera, head of the Cuban mission to the US, denounced new US sanctions targeting the island's state-owned energy company, arguing the measures would harm ordinary Cubans rather than government officials.

"The sanctions against CUPET are part of the design to strangle and bend Cuba, which has a direct impact, in a criminal way, on the Cuban people," Rivera said on X.

She called on Washington to end the "collective punishment" of the Cuban population.

"Stop the collective punishment against children, pregnant women, the chronically ill, the elderly and the rest of the people of Cuba!!!" she said.