UN experts warn US: Fuel blockade in Cuba puts human rights at risk

U.S. President Donald Trump's executive order in January to impose a fuel blockade on Cuba amounts to "energy starvation" with grave consequences for the Caribbean island nation's development and human rights, U.N. experts said on Thursday.

Washington, which has imposed an embargo on the communist-run island since 1960, intensified measures this year by threatening tariffs on countries supplying it with oil and repeatedly suggesting it could take military action against Cuba.

Only Russia has continued to send shipments to Cuba, whose power grid is heavily reliant on imported fuel. The blockade has forced the government to further ration key services, while some business and homes have turned to alternatives such as solar power.

"This measure has sharply worsened fuel shortages across the island, pushing essential services to the brink," said a group of independent experts appointed by the U.N. Human Rights Council in a statement.

"While the order references human rights concerns within Cuba, it fails to consider how the measure itself — a unilateral coercive measure — directly harms the enjoyment of human rights of the Cuban people."

Separately on Thursday, the U.S. imposed financial sanctions on a sprawling business conglomerate run by Cuba's military and a Cuban-Canadian mining joint venture.

Last week, Trump signed another executive order broadening U.S. sanctions against people, entities and affiliates that support the Cuban government's security apparatus.

-Sarah Morland/Reuters