U.N. ‘extraordinarily nervous’ by Cuba disaster

The United Nations mentioned on Friday (February 13, 2026) it was deeply alarmed by the disaster unfolding in Cuba because the island nation struggles beneath what quantities to a U.S. blockade of oil deliveries.

President Donald Trump has vowed to starve Cuba of oil after final month’s U.S. navy ousting of Nicolas Maduro, the chief of Venezuela, which had been communist Cuba’s major oil provider.

“We’re extraordinarily nervous about Cuba’s deepening socio-economic disaster — amid a decades-long monetary and commerce embargo, excessive climate occasions, and the current U.S. measures proscribing oil shipments,” U.N. human rights workplace spokeswoman Marta Hurtado advised a media briefing in Geneva.

“That is having an more and more extreme influence on the human rights of individuals in Cuba. U.N. rights chief Volker Turk “reiterates his name on all States to elevate unilateral sectoral measures, given their broad and indiscriminate influence on the inhabitants. Coverage objectives can’t justify actions that in themselves violate human rights,” the spokeswoman mentioned.

Ms. Hurtado mentioned that given the dependence of well being, meals, and water methods on imported fossil fuels, oil shortage in Cuba had put the provision of important companies in danger.

“Intensive care models and emergency rooms are compromised, as are the manufacturing, supply, and storage of vaccines, blood merchandise, and different temperature-sensitive medicines,” she mentioned.

“Greater than 80% of water pumping tools in Cuba depends upon electrical energy,” she added, saying energy cuts have been undermining entry to protected water, sanitation and hygiene.

Mr. Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Miami-born son of Cuban immigrants, have made no secret of their want to result in regime change in Havana.

The island of 9.6 million inhabitants, beneath a U.S. commerce embargo since 1962, has for years been mired in a extreme financial disaster marked by prolonged energy cuts and shortages of gasoline, medication and meals.

“The long-term, sustained influence of sectoral sanctions creates financial hardship and weakens the state’s capability to fulfil its core duties, together with offering safety and help companies. This will increase the chance of fuelling social disruption in Cuba,” Mr. Hurtado mentioned.

Cuba wants to answer the state of affairs in step with worldwide human rights regulation, she added, prioritising mediation, de-escalation, and the safeguarding of the rights to freedom of peaceable meeting and expression.