UN proposes 94 million plan to secure fuel for Cuba amid US blockade

The United Nations proposed a $94.1 million emergency plan for Cuba, which includes fuel monitoring. The aim is to allow energy imports for humanitarian purposes, mitigating the oil blockade imposed in January by the US President. Francisco Pichón, UN coordinator on the island, explained that the initiative aims to keep essential services running. "If the current situation continues and we exhaust the country's fuel reserves, we fear a rapid deterioration, with the possible loss of lives," he said. The organisation is in talks with Washington to find an agreement via a tracking model. 'The feasibility and implementation of this action plan obviously depends on fuel solutions,' Pichón pointed out. The project extends the response to the damage of the recent Hurricane Melissa, in a dramatic context where Cubans suffer power outages of more than twenty hours a day and the government applies strict rationing.

Meanwhile, former Cuban President Raúl Castro is involved in the talks between the island and the US, which are still in an early stage. This was stated by Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel. The talks come against a backdrop of rising tensions between the two nations, with Cuba plagued by nationwide blackouts caused by a crumbling power grid and an ongoing oil blockade implemented by President Trump, who has threatened to impose tariffs on any country that supplies oil to Cuba and recently said he would soon have "the honour of conquering Cuba". The talks as a whole are being run collectively by the Cuban government, Díaz-Canel told Spanish leftist leader Pablo Iglesias in a video interview that lasted more than an hour and was broadcast by state media.

Iglesias was in Cuba as part of a delegation of some 600 activists from 33 countries who arrived last week to deliver humanitarian aid. "A process of conversations leading to an agreement is a long process," Díaz-Canel told Iglesias, who produced the interview for his crowdfunded television channel, Canal RED. 'First, we have to build a channel for dialogue. Then, we have to define common agendas of interests for the parties, and the parties have to demonstrate their intention to move forward and really commit to the agenda based on the discussion of those agendas,' Díaz-Canel said.