Cuba Watch

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

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted that key assets of the company, known as Cupet, were “unlawfully expropriated from American owners years ago.”

He also accused Cuba’s government of weaponising energy.

On Tuesday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Balance of Power,” Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) said that picking up Raul Castro in Cuba wouldn’t be difficult, but he thinks that, due to a desire by Castro to avoid dying in prison, “Raul Castro is going to leave the country, along with his family” “before we pick him up.”

Scott said, “Well, let’s remember, the Cubans were supporting — were defending Maduro, and that took, what, seven minutes to take out Maduro? So, it won’t take much to pick up Raul Castro. And the people of Cuba are already –.”

Co-host Kailey Leinz then cut in to ask, “You expect that to happen?”

CIA Director John Ratcliffe traveled to Cuba on Thursday for meetings with senior Cuban officials, including the grandson of former communist leader Raúl Castro, as the Trump administration pursues renewed pressure and negotiations with the island’s government.

According to US and Cuban officials, Ratcliffe met with Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, Cuban Interior Minister Lázaro Álvarez Casas, and Cuban intelligence leaders during the visit. Discussions reportedly focused on intelligence cooperation, economic conditions, and regional security issues.

A CIA official said Ratcliffe traveled to Havana “to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.”

The United States, with “America First” President Donald Trump at the helm, along with his anti-Castro Cuban-American Secretary of State Marco Rubio, has been putting the pressure on the communist regime founded in 1959 by that infamous revolutionary, Fidel Castro. In an executive order issued in May, the president deemed the island country, which is only 90 miles off the Florida Keys, an “unusual and extraordinary threat,” and the administration has been busy since slamming them with sanctions and cutting off their oil supplies.

The possibility of a showdown between the United States and Russia is looming as a Russian tanker laden with oil steams toward Cuba and a U.S. blockade.

The Anatoly Kolodkin has 730,000 barrels of oil aboard, according to Politico, and is heading for the Cuban port of Matanzas. It could arrive in two to three days, Michelle Wiese Bockmann, a senior maritime intelligence analyst at Windward AI, said.

The Kolodkin was escorted through the English Channel by the Russian navy, but since then the tanker has been on its own.

Politico reported that former Trump administration officials expect the tanker to be stopped, but that current administration officials are keeping quiet about what the U.S. will do.

Russia has not said for certain that it plans to test the blockade and create the biggest showdown since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, preferring to drop hints wrapped in bland statements of support for Cuba, which has been under an oil blockade ever since American forces captured Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro. Cuba relied on Venezuelan oil, which has been cut off since January.