---
title: "Cuba Calls the US Oil Blockade ‘Collective Punishment’ While Trump Talks of a Deal"
description: "Bruno Rodriguez told the UN the measure is meant to cause a humanitarian crisis; Trump says a deal is coming"
author: "Arthur Wren"
published: 2026-09-26T17:22:44Z
modified: 2026-09-27T00:07:52Z
url: https://rews.cc/a/cuba-calls-the-us-oil-blockade-collective-punishment-while-t-d8275d
language: en
tags: ["cuba", "trump", "politics", "economy", "un", "world"]
publisher: "Rews (https://rews.cc)"
---

# Cuba Calls the US Oil Blockade ‘Collective Punishment’ While Trump Talks of a Deal

*Bruno Rodriguez told the UN the measure is meant to cause a humanitarian crisis; Trump says a deal is coming*

By Arthur Wren · September 26, 2026 · https://rews.cc/a/cuba-calls-the-us-oil-blockade-collective-punishment-while-t-d8275d

## In brief

- Cuba’s foreign minister called the US oil blockade an “act of collective punishment” at the UN General Assembly
- Rodriguez said an energy blockade has intensified since January 2026, barring countries from exporting fuel to Cuba
- Days earlier, the US told the UN that “freedom will be coming” to Cuba
- Trump predicted a US-Cuba agreement and said he did not believe military action would be necessary

Bruno Rodriguez, Cuba’s foreign minister, used his turn at the United Nations General Assembly on Saturday to name America’s oil blockade of his country an “act of collective punishment”. Its purpose, he said, is to bring on a humanitarian crisis. The phrase is plain and is meant plainly: the punishment does not land on ministers, but on the whole population of the island.

> an energy blockade has intensified, which, through intimidation and coercion, prohibits all countries from exporting fuel to Cuba

That has been so, he said, since January 2026, and the measure is tantamount to “a naval blockade”, [according to an account of his speech](https://lavocedinewyork.com/en/un/2026/09/26/cuban-foreign-minister-at-the-unga-81-acts-of-collective-punishment-by-the-u-s/) by La Voce di New York. A naval blockade, in the older and blunter language of states, was an act of war. This one is conducted with paperwork and pressure on third countries rather than with ships, but the effect on the Cuban street is the same: the fuel does not come.

Days earlier, the United States had used the same United Nations stage to promise that “freedom will be coming” to Cuba. Freedom understood as something a foreign power delivers by cutting a country’s fuel is a curious sort of freedom, but it is a familiar sort of language.

President Donald Trump, for his part, told reporters that Washington and Havana would reach an agreement, and that he did not believe military action would be necessary. Read together, the squeeze and the smile describe one policy: the blockade raises the price, the promised deal offers the way out.

If Mr Rodriguez is right about the intent, the coming crisis will be paid for by ordinary Cubans who have no seat at any of these tables. If Mr Trump is right about the deal, the blockade was a bargaining chip all along. Until the signatures are dry, the tankers stay away.