LatinNews Daily - 13 May 2026

*Cuba’s ministry of finance and prices (MFP) has indicated that new, variable fuel prices in US dollars at gas stations will be announced from 15 May to better reflect the “actual” cost of importing fuel. It blames the move on “drastic decline in fuel supplies” due to the “intensification of the economic, trade, financial, and energy blockade” imposed by the US which has been exacerbated by US President Donald Trump’s 29 January and 1 May executive orders which tightened sanctions on Cuba. According to an MFP statement, new prices could vary from gas station to gas station, and would vary depending on the supplier, freight costs, supply routes, insurance, related risks, and fluctuations on the international markets. According to the MFP statement, while a fixed price for fuel sales had been hitherto maintained, as a protection policy against fluctuating prices due to market volatility, this could “no longer be economically sustained under current conditions”. The announcement follows a warning issued on 7 May by a group of United Nations experts which warned that as a result of the 29 January order, which threatened tariffs on oil suppliers providing fuel to Cuba, the island “has been subjected to energy starvation by the United States, a condition in which the lack of fuel cripples the functioning of essential services required for a dignified life”. Describing the measure as “unilateral” and “coercive”, the UN experts state that “energy starvation as a coercive tool is incompatible with international human rights norms.”

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