쿠바가 점점 어두워지고 있다. 정전 때문에 불을 켤 수 없다. 미국이 석유 공급을 차단했기 때문이다. 군대를 보내 쿠바로 가는 유조선들을 막고, 또 멕시코 등 쿠바에 우호적인 나라들에게는 관세 협박으로 석유 공급을 중지시키고 있다.
항공기 주유가 안 되면서 9개 노선 이상의 국제 항공기 왕래가 중지됐다. 또 병원에 대한 전력 공급이 원활하지 않다. 때문에 대부분 연료 수도꼭지를 잠근 채 학교, 병원, 대중교통 등 필수서비스 중심으로만 연료 배급제에 나선 실정이다. 전세계 양심적인 시민들이 렌틸콩 따위를 모아 쿠바로 보내고 있지만 턱없이 부족한 상황.
트럼프는 석유를 막는 이유에 대해 안보 위협이라고 주장한다. 그러면서 쿠바가 하마스와 헤즈볼라의 은신처라고 우긴다. 왜 그런 소리를 할까? 쿠바에 팔레스타인 학생 수백 명이 있기 때문이다. 그런데 그들은 의료 수업을 받는 평범한 학생들이다.
쿠바가 의료 선진국이라는 사실은 잘 알려져 있다. 또 코로나가 됐든, 자연재난이 됐든, 전 세계에 구호를 위해 의사들(또는 소방관)을 파견해 왔다. 1960년 이래 미국의 봉쇄에도 쿠바는 의료와 농생태학 등 삶에 필수적인 분야를 열심히 다듬어 세상을 이롭게 했다.
이렇게 쿠바가 평화를 위해 세계에 의료인들을 파견할 때 미국은 세계에 군대를 보냈다. 전쟁과 분쟁, 식민주의와 제국주의를 위해서 말이다.
베네수엘라에서 마두로를 납치한 직후, 쿠바는 다음 타겟으로 꾸준히 지명돼 왔다. 루비오 국무장관이 쿠바 2세대이고, 쿠바가 망하길 끊임없이 주장해 온 극우다. 여기에 베네수엘라로부터 석유 일부를 공급받아 온 쿠바를 연이어 처벌함으로써 바로 눈 밑의 눈엣가시를 제거하고 남미 통치의 고속도로를 구축하기 위한 작전이 개시된 것이다.
금융 봉쇄를 넘어 이제 석유 봉쇄와 군사적 봉쇄로 질식시키려는 것이다. 한 달 동안 유조선 5척이 나포됐고 쿠바로 가던 730만 배럴의 원유가 압수됐다. 또 카리브해에 60여 년 만에 최대 규모의 해군 병력이 배치됐다.
지독한 봉쇄다. 1960년 쿠바 혁명이 일어난 후, 미국 국무부는 이렇게 결론지었다.
"쿠바 혁명이 너무 인기가 많아 전복시키기 어렵다. 쿠바에 대한 자금과 물자 지원을 중단시키고, 기아와 절망을 초래해 정부를 전복시켜야 한다."
그 후로부터 66년간 봉쇄를 지속해 왔고, 이제 목을 눌러 마지막으로 교사하려는 것이다. 1,100만 명 이상의 쿠바인들의 목숨과 건강이 위험에 처했다.
쿠바는 회복성과 탄력성이 높은 나라였다. 90년을 전후로 소련이 망하고 석유 공급이 중지됐을 때는 농생태학을 기반으로 한 도시농업으로 애면글면 버텨냈고, 미국의 석유 위협을 예상한 몇 년 전부터는 태양광 패널을 열심히 깔았다. 그 덕에 현재 대략 쿠바 전력의 30% 정도를 재생에너지로 충당하고 있고, 향후 태양광을 더 깔려던 차였다.
그사이 이렇게 미국이 목을 조르고 있는 것이다. 인종청소나 다름없다. 미국은 자유를 위해 이런다고 말한다. 쿠바 혁명이 일어나기 전, 미국 기업들은 쿠바 경작지의 70%, 광업 90%, 공공시설 90%를 소유했다. 즉, 미 자본의 식민지였다. 또 엡스타인 섬처럼, 미국 부유층의 하렘인 양 취급받았다. 그들이 말하는 자유란 바로 그런 자유다.
피델과 라울과 같은 혁명 세대가 사라진 쿠바는 이번 위기를 극복할 수 있을까. 그러기를 바라지만, 트럼프 파시즘의 독기가 참 매섭다.
다른 분들도 쿠바에 관심 가져주시길.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/01/cuba-fuel-shortage-trump-tariffs
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이쯤되면 싫어하는 걸 넘어서 저주해야 할까봐요. 미국 망해라
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/feb/01/cuba-fuel-shortage-trump-tariffs
Cuba on the brink as Trump turns up the pressure: ‘There is going to be a real blockade’
Country is already suffering acute fuel shortage; experts say complete cutoff will be ‘catastrophic’ to its infrastructure
Ruaridh Nicoll in Havana
Mon 2 Feb 2026 00.00 AEDT
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It’s just gone midday on Linea, one of the main roads through Havana’s Vedado neighbourhood, and Javier Peña and Ysil Ribas have been waiting since 6am outside a petrol station. They’re passing the time fixing a leak on Ribas’s 1955 gold and white Mercury.
A tanker has pulled up on the forecourt in front of them, and so the queue behind is growing fast. Although this station only takes US dollars, at a cost far out of reach of most Cubans, Peña says it’s their only choice. “There is no gas in the national pesos,” he says, shrugging.
Soon, even buying petrol in dollars may be impossible. The United States has said it will ensure there will be no more fuel shipments to the beleaguered island.
On Thursday, Donald Trump signed an executive order allowing extra tariffs to be slapped on any country that sells oil to the island. The White House said the move was to “protect American citizens and interests” from a regime that provides “a safe haven for transnational terrorist groups, such as Hezbollah and Hamas”.
While no proof of this allegation was offered, the Trump administration has now made plain it is seeking to fell the 67-year-old communist regime. “Cuba will be failing pretty soon,” Trump said earlier in the week.
On Friday, Mexico’s president warned that Trump’s tariff’s “could trigger a far-reaching humanitarian crisis, directly affecting hospitals, food supplies and other basic services for the Cuban people”.
For Cubans, the situation is precipitous. Only one oil shipment has arrived this year – 84,900 barrels from Mexico – according to the data consultancy Kpler. Given current reserves, if no more tankers arrive, Kpler estimates Cuba will run out of fuel in the next three weeks, the Financial Times reported on Thursday.
People wait in line with their cars at a gas station
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Drivers wait in a long line at a gas station in Havana, Cuba, on 30 January 2026. Photograph: Ramón Espinosa/AP
In a social media post on Friday, Cuba’s president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, accused Trump of trying to stifle the island, writing: “Under a false and baseless pretext … President Trump intends to suffocate the Cuban economy by imposing tariffs on countries that sovereignly trade oil with Cuba.”
Jorge Piñón, an energy expert at the University of Texas, said diesel is key: “[If Cuba runs out,] the impact would be catastrophic as diesel fuels transportation – both passenger and commercial, the railroad, agriculture, industry, water distribution and sugarcane.” It also powers an electricity system that is faring so badly that many parts of the island suffer from 12-hour-plus blackouts every day.
people cook outside in the dark and shine flashlights
‘There is no money’: Cuba fears total collapse amid grid failure and financial crisis
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Help does not seem to be on the way. A shipment due to arrive from Mexico has been cancelled – a “sovereign decision” according to that country’s president, Claudia Sheinbaum, despite clear pressure from Washington.
There have been no supplies from Venezuela, another traditional ally, since the US violently removed the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, on 3 January. Other allies such as Russia and Algeria have been even less forthcoming, with shipments last October and February respectively, according to Kpler.
While China expressed “its deep concern and opposition to the United States’ actions”, promising “support and assistance”, it has traditionally bought oil from Cuba, which the Cuban government had received in aid from Venezuela.
“It’s not rocket science to understand they have used up all their cards,” said a businessman who has long worked with the Cuban government.
On Wednesday, as the Cuban people prepared for more misery, the US embassy threw a party for Freedom 250, the anniversary of the US declaration of independence.
A deep dive into the policies, controversies and oddities surrounding the Trump administration
In a speech to fellow diplomats – Cuban independent journalists reported being stopped by Cuba’s security services from attending – the US chargé d’affaires to Cuba, Mike Hammer, said the Cuban government needed to hear the message coming from Washington. “The Cubans have complained for years about ‘the blockade’,” he said of the six-decade US embargo. “But now there is going to be a real blockade.”
This follows robust anti-Cuba briefings all week from Washington. A story in the Wall Street Journal reported officials were actively seeking members of the Cuban government who “would cut a deal”, echoing reports that the US contacted members of Maduro’s inner circle before toppling the Venezuelan strongman.
Another briefing, to the website Politico, said Washington was weighing a full naval blockade on the island, although a European diplomat at the US party shook his head at this: “They don’t need gun boats. Pressure alone appears to be enough to stop anyone sending oil.”
On Wednesday CNN reported that Hammer had advised staff in an internal briefing: “If you don’t have your bag packed yet, then pack your bag.” The embassy said it have no plans to evacuate.
The Cuban government has responded by releasing videos of soldiers training to resist invasion. Carlos Fernández de Cossio, who leads the US desk at Cuba’s ministry of foreign affairs, said a blockade “is a brutal assault against a nation that doesn’t threaten the US”.
But the reaction has been, in general, understated. Unlike Venezuela’s president before the attack on Caracas, no senior Cuban officials have been seen dancing in the face of the aggression.
Nonetheless, Cuba’s leaders have few options. According to their own government figures, the economy fell by 11% between 2019 and 2024 and another 5% through September 2025. Hyper-inflation has beggared those with state wages or pensions.
Eddy Marrero is waiting in the queue for gas with his motorcycle. He is a trained doctor but he now works as a moto-taxi driver, ferrying people around the city. “Doing this, I make in one day what I’d make in a month as a doctor,” he said. Having petrol is critical, of course.
No one is clear on what will happen next – only that life is going to get more difficult. “It’s been a downward spiral for 20 years,” said a man waiting in the queue beside his yellow Lada. Asked who is to blame, he replies: “I don’t get involved in politics.”
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이쯤되면 싫어하는 걸 넘어서 저주해야 할까봐요. 미국 망해라
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