HAVANA, June 20 (Xinhua) -- Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla said Saturday that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio was lying and contradicting U.S. President Donald Trump by denying Washington's oil blockade against Cuba.
"When the U.S. secretary of state talks about incompetence in Cuba, he should be asked why he lies chronically and contradicts the U.S. president and his spokeswoman by denying the existence of the total fuel blockade that the White House acknowledges," Rodriguez wrote on X.
Rodriguez said every reference Rubio makes to the situation in Cuba includes "an attempt to avoid any responsibility and present himself as a savior."
The Cuban minister denounced an "economic suffocation plan" by Rubio and the U.S. administration against Cuba, saying it prevents foreign companies from selling parts and technology for the island's thermoelectric plants.
The plan "prevents any company in the world from selling oil to our country" and sanctions CUPET, the Cuban company that has the infrastructure and capacity to handle fuel logistics in Cuba, Rodriguez said.
It sanctions nickel companies, threatens foreign companies with business in tourism and mining, strips foreign citizens who visit Cuba of the right to use ESTA visas to enter the U.S., and blackmails and threatens states that sovereignly maintain health cooperation agreements with Cuba, Rodriguez said.
He added that Rubio "openly calls for the subversion of Cuba's constitutional order and persistently seeks U.S. military intervention in Cuba."
An executive order signed by Trump on Jan. 29 authorized the White House to impose tariffs on countries exporting fuel to Cuba.
So far in 2026, Cuba has received only one oil shipment: about 100,000 tonnes of crude carried by the Russian vessel Anatoly Kolodkin. ■