US Coast Guard intercepts cargo ship carrying fuel to Cuba

The US Coast Guard has announced that it intercepted a large cargo ship carrying fuel bound for Cuba, as the Trump administration’s crippling oil embargo against the island nation continued.

The vessel named Grace was stopped on 5 September in the Caribbean Sea between Cuba and Mexico while using tactics to evade authorities, the Coast Guard said. The New York Times reported that the ship was 91 metres (300ft) long.

“Grace was transiting to Cuba, carrying fuel, and was believed to be employing tactics common amongst the dark fleet,” the Coast Guard said in a statement.

A Coast Guard team boarded the ship and escorted it to Mexico, where a Mexican navy inspection team “confirmed the presence of large quantities of fuel in the vessel’s ballast tanks”. The vessel was also carrying several containers believed to contain illicit fuel, the statement said.

The Trump administration has openly stated that its goal is to change Cuba’s government. A US-imposed oil blockade implemented earlier this year has put the country under severe strain as it contends with fuel shortages and blackouts exacerbated by failing infrastructure.

Oil shipments from Cuba’s traditional suppliers, Venezuela and Mexico, ended abruptly after the US ousted the Venezuelan president, Nicolás Maduro, in January. US Coast Guard cutters patrol the waters off Cuba, while sanctions and threats have dissuaded tankers from even setting sail.

“The high seas are not a sanctuary for lawlessness,” Adm Kevin Lunday, the commandant of the Coast Guard, said. “Dark fleet actors who employ deceptive tactics to engage in illicit activities will not evade justice.”

The statement did not say how authorities knew the fuel was headed to Cuba or how much fuel Grace was carrying.