Washington DC - President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday threatening to impose additional tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba as his administration escalated its aggression against the island.
The order did not specify the value of the tariffs or which countries would be targeted, leaving those determinations up to his secretary of commerce.
Cuba, which has largely been under a devastating US blockade since 1962, until recently received most of its oil from Venezuela.
But the US has moved to block the flow after violently removing Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro from power and effectively seizing control of the country's oil exports.
Trump has since vowed to completely cut off oil and money going to Cuba – a long-time obsession of his virulently anti-communist secretary of state, Marco Rubio.
"I strongly suggest they make a deal, BEFORE IT IS TOO LATE," he threatened in a social media post, without specifying what "deal" he was looking for.
Havana's foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez on Thursday called the latest move in a post on X a "brutal act of aggression against Cuba and its people, who for more than 65 years have been subjected to the longest and cruelest economic blockade ever imposed."
The order signed Thursday threatens added tariffs on any "country that directly or indirectly sells or otherwise provides any oil to Cuba."
The order invokes the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEPA) and calls the Cuban government an "extraordinary threat" to US national security.
Other tariffs invoked under the IEEPA are currently being challenged at the Supreme Court.
Cuba faces more US-caused economic pain
Declaring a "national emergency" related to Cuba, Trump made similar baseless claims to those made against Venezuela, such as providing support nations hostile to the US.
"The regime aligns itself with – and provides support for – numerous hostile countries, transnational terrorist groups, and malign actors adverse to the United States," including Russia, China, and Iran, as well as the militant groups Hamas and Hezbollah, the order said.
The pressure comes as the island is in the throes of its worst economic crisis in decades, marked by recurring power outages of up to 20 hours a day and shortages of food and medicine that have created mass suffering.
Mexico has become a significant provider oil to Cuba, though media reports have suggested that flows could be slowing under pressure from Trump.
Speaking at a press conference earlier this week, Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum would neither confirm or deny the reports, but said Mexico would "continue to show solidarity" with Cuba.