US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that will impose a tariff on any goods from countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba, a move that could further cripple an island plagued by a deepening energy crisis.

The order, signed on Thursday, would primarily put pressure on Mexico, a government that has acted as an oil lifeline for Cuba and has constantly voiced solidarity for the US adversary even as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has sought to build a strong relationship with Trump.

Asked whether he was trying to “choke off” Cuba, which he called a “failing nation”, Trump said “the word ‘choke off’ is awfully tough. I’m not trying to, but it looks like it’s something that’s just not going to be able to survive.”

Bruno Rodríguez, Cuba’s foreign minister, condemned Trump’s executive order, calling it a “brutal act of aggression against Cuba and its people… who are now threatened with being subjected to extreme living conditions”.

He accused the United States of resorting to “blackmail and coercion to try to force other countries to join its universally condemned blockade policy against Cuba”.

On Cuban state television, commentator Jorge Legañoa, who usually expresses views aligned with the government, asserted “Cuba was not a threat,” but rather that the island’s authorities were fighting gangs and preventing regional drug trafficking with their zero-tolerance policy.

Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Carlos F de Cossio wrote on social media platform X that the United States was tightening its Cuban blockade after “the failure of decades of relentless economic warfare” and attempting to “force sovereign states to join the embargo”.

“Under threat of tariff coercion, they must decide whether to forgo their right to export their own fuel to Cuba.”

Trump and Sheinbaum spoke by phone on Thursday morning.

“We didn’t address the issue of Cuba,” Sheinbaum said, adding that Mexico’s foreign affairs secretary had said to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio that it was “very important” for Mexico to maintain its humanitarian aid to Cuba and Mexico was willing to serve as an intermediary between the US and Cuba.

This week has been marked by speculation that Mexico would slash oil shipments to Cuba under mounting pressure by Trump to distance itself from the Cuban government.

In its deepening energy and economic crisis, fueled in part by strict economic sanctions by the US, Cuba has relied heavily on foreign assistance and oil shipments from allies like Mexico, Russia and Venezuela before a US military operation ousted former Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Since the Venezuela operation, Trump has said that no more Venezuelan oil will go to Cuba and the Cuban government is ready to fall.

In its most recent report, Mexico's state-owned oil company Pemex said it shipped nearly 20,000 barrels of oil per day to Cuba from January through September 30, 2025. That month, Rubio visited Mexico City. Afterward, Jorge Piñon, an expert at the University of Texas Energy Institute who tracks shipments using satellite technology, said the figure had fallen to about 7,000 barrels.

Sheinbaum has been incredibly vague about where her country stood, and this week has given roundabout and ambiguous answers to inquiries about the shipments, and dodged reporters questions in her morning press briefings. (AP)