UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres warned that Cuba runs the risk of suffering a humanitarian “collapse” If you do not receive oil to satisfy your needs, his spokesperson said Wednesday.
Cuba no longer has Venezuelan oil
“The Secretary General is very concerned about the humanitarian situation in Cuba, which will worsen or collapseif their oil needs are not met,” declared spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric.
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Cuba, subject to a US embargo since 1962, depended on Venezuelan oil. But that country stopped shipping after the overthrow of President Nicolás Maduro in a US military operation on January 3.
President Donald Trump has threatened other countries with the imposition of tariffs if they try to sell oil to Havana.
On Monday he asserted that Mexico would stop sending oil to Cuba, which he described as “a failed nation.”
Darío Álvarez, advisor to the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) for Latin America and the Caribbean, based in Panama, warned that “the situation in Cuba It is not a situation of this moment”, sino “a complicated situation for some time.”
This situation “has had accumulated impacts over several years,” explained Álvarez, who was recently on a mission to the island, in a telephone interview with AFP.
He recalled that Cuba was hit in October by Hurricane Melissa, which left “more than two million” affected, and that in 2024 it will also was punished “due to two hurricanes, in less than 20 days, an earthquake and two massive power outages,” due to its precarious electrical system.
Natural disasters punish the Island
The official highlighted that, in the case of Hurricane Melissa, OCHA has “a response underway” that includes the delivery of supplies for health, water and sanitation, as well as “for temporary shelters” and “food security.”
However, “so far we have managed to mobilize around 23%” of the more than 74 million dollars needed, Álvarez said.
He stressed that these actions have been “delayed” by the lack of fuel that the island has been facing “for some time.”
“Fuel is a key factor for everything,” because “we use it for transportation, for cooking, for the power plants that we have now installed, for hospitals and clinical centers to operate, for pumping water,” he explained.
Trump, who has multiplied threats against the island, also stated that he wants to reach an agreement with the Cuban leadership.
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