US Sanctions Cuban State Oil Company Maritime Activity Reports, Inc. June 11, 2026 © ismel leal / Adobe Stock The United States issued sanctions against Cuban state oil company Union Cuba Petroleo (CUPET), the Treasury Department website showed on Thursday, adding more obstacles for the island's government to import much-needed fuel. Washington has imposed sanctions on an array of Cuban entities and people, including the island nation's president, as it seeks to intensify pressure on Cuba's communist leaders. The sanctions follow the U.S. declaration of a national emergency this year that would impose tariffs on any country that supplies oil to the island, a move that has deprived it of fuel imports, contributing to widespread power outages. "Cuba's Communist elites have weaponized energy as a tool of social control and kleptocratic profit," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a social media post. "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," he added. Cuba has rejected those allegations and has said U.S. sanctions on the island amount to "genocide." "The sanctions against CUPET are part of a plan to strangle ...Cuba, which has a direct impact, in a criminal way, on the Cuban people. Stop the collective punishment against children, pregnant women, the chronically ill, the elderly and the rest of the people of Cuba," said Lianys Torres, Cuba's top diplomat in Washington. The United Nations' human rights chief underscored those concerns earlier this week, warning the U.S. sanctions were causing "widespread harm to the population and endangering lives." The UN says the U.S. measures are a violation of international law and amount to "energy starvation," crip