On January 3, 2026, the United States captured Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and began seizing the country’s oil. Cuba, one of the South American nations’ closest allies, now faces a lamentably bleak economic crisis as its decades-long trading partnership ceases overnight.
Cuba’s Struggle for Survival Without Oil
Cuban citizens are no strangers to the ongoing humanitarian crisis. The island has weathered hardships since the 1990s. Amid severe shortages of basic necessities, including food and medicine, oil imports from their allies are the latest to take a significant hit. With the abrupt loss of the country’s lifeline, citizens are having to endure the aftermath alone.
Every month, four tankers carrying oil are sent from Venezuela, with each shipment accounting for a daily supply of 30,000 to 35,000 barrels reaching Cuban shores, according to Jorge Piñón, a Cuban energy expert at the University of Texas at Austin’s Energy Institute and co-author of “Cuba’s Energy Future: Strategic Approaches to Cooperation.”
In exchange, Cuba provides the now overtaken nation with medical support and military and security forces, thirty-two of which were casualties during the U.S. capture of Maduro. Piñón states, “The White House’s severing of the island nation’s partnership with Venezuela accounts for 50% of the economy’s deficit. Mexico once supplied Cuba with 22,000 barrels of oil a day before it dropped to 7,000 barrels after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio visited Mexico City this past September. Additionally, Russia is a significant trade partner of Cuba and has the means to fill the gap.” Yet neither country has made any public strides to provide Cuba with additional aid.
Residents across Cuba are bracing for the challenging period ahead. Persistent outages, dangerously low food rations, imminent inflation, and deadly illnesses continue to spread. As perceived pressure mounts, many citizens are looking for Cuban military forces to remain steadfast in the face of U.S. imperialism. Nene Castro, a Habana taxi driver, expresses the daily struggle, stating, “I am spending hours on end today; however, it is usually days with no end waiting for petroleum just to go work so my family and I can eat. I eat and live with the hope of tourists coming, as it is a main income source for all Habana taxi drivers, but we need more than tourists to keep the country afloat; we need support.”
Washington’s Dilemma: Engaging or Isolating Cuba
Hours after Maduro’s capture, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel held a rally steps from the understaffed American Embassy in La Habana. To showcase his support of the Venezuelan leader, Díaz-Canel condemned the U.S. actions on the soil in Caracas as “An act of terrorism against the state, a breach of the zone of peace between the two countries, and an unacceptable attack on international right.” This reprimand comes just 48 hours prior to President Donald Trump releasing statements suggesting that Cuba is “ready to fall and unable to survive,” highlighting the growing friction between the nations.
Shifting Tides: A Moral Call for Cuba-U.S. Re-Evaluation
The humanitarian crisis affecting the island nation highlights the need to understand how U.S. policies, such as sanctions and diplomatic pressure, impact not only Cuba but also regional stability and international relations. Understanding this is crucial for informed policy discussions to continue developing worldwide.
The 90-mile stretch of the Atlantic Ocean between the two nations remains a symbol of how close and far progress can be. With the diminished role of Venezuela, an urgent need for international intervention skyrockets as the potential of a worsening human crisis is on the horizon.
Sabrina De La Rosa is an independent journalist with a B.S. in Journalism, specializing in Global Africana and Latino Studies, and was born and raised in Harlem.