Colombian aid ship arrives in Cuba amid US energy embargo

A ship carrying nearly 100 tonnes of food and essential goods arrived in Cuba from Colombia on Friday as part of the humanitarian aid that several countries have sent to the island as a US energy embargo persists.

The ship, which departed Cartagena in early June, crossed the Havana Bay channel early in the morning flying the Colombian flag and escorted by a small Cuban auxiliary vessel.

The Colombian Presidential Agency for International Cooperation said that, on orders of President Gustavo Petro, the shipment included non-perishable food, medicine, hospital supplies, electrical materials, solar panels and other items.

The ship also carried seven tonnes of goods collected by solidarity groups.

Last weekend, another ship carrying 1,700 tonnes of essential goods from Mexico and Belize arrived in Havana.

Sanctions on Cuba

Washington announced sanctions against Cuba’s state-owned oil and gas company on Thursday in a move expected to increase tensions between the two countries.

That announcement came almost a week after the US government sanctioned Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and other officials, as well as several institutions.

Cuba is already struggling under a decades-old embargo and a lack of petroleum as the US keeps pushing for a change in its economic and political model.

Power outages, already common given the economic and energetic crisis gripping the island for the past five years, have only intensified since Trump threatened tariffs in late January on any country that sells or provides oil to Cuba.

Cuba's government said on Wednesday that the US oil blockade that has crippled the island is preventing the United Nations from distributing 170 containers of humanitarian aid.

Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said that 170 containers of UN aid worth $6.3 million (€5.4 million) "is not reaching beneficiaries due to the fuel shortage."

Writing on X, he stressed that the blockade was "not only hampering the performance of the Cuban economy" but also affecting the work of international organisations.

Both countries have acknowledged that they have held talks, but the scope of them is unknown.

Meanwhile, Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba ever since the US military invaded Venezuela and arrested former President Nicolás Maduro.

Last Thursday, Trump said Cuba has "sort of collapsed" and said "we're going to handle that as soon as we've finished" military operations in Iran.