US President Donald Trump reversed course on blocking oil shipments to Cuba, allowing a Russian tanker to reach the crisis-hit island nation.
Havana has not received any oil — from which it generates the vast majority of its electricity — in the three months since the US captured Venezuela’s former president; the US blocked shipments from the country, which had been Cuba’s main supplier.
The crunch has shut down much of Cuba’s economy, while doctors there say patients are dying amid repeated blackouts. Regardless, Trump has vowed to see through his plans to oust the country’s communist regime, raising the specter of an attack: “I built this great military… and Cuba is next,” he said.
