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Cuba says Rubio lying about oil blockade
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez has accused US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of lying about the existence of an oil blockade, saying only one fuel shipment has arrived in over four months. The dispute follows US threats of tariffs and sanctions on countries supplying fuel to Cuba, amid an ongoing energy crisis.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of lying when Rubio denied that the United States was carrying out an oil blockade against Cuba. Rodriguez made the accusation in a statement on his Telegram channel, as reported by both TASS and The Hindu, and responded to comments Rubio made while guest-hosting the White House press briefing.
Coverage Comparison
Both TASS and The Hindu reported Rodriguez's remarks, quoting him as saying that Rubio "has simply chosen to lie" and that he "contradicts the President and the White House Spokesperson." The two outlets also highlighted Rodriguez's assertion that only one shipment of fuel has reached Cuba in over four months, and that all suppliers have been subjected to intimidation and threats in violation of free trade principles.
Rubio, according to The Hindu's report, said at the White House: "There's no oil blockade on Cuba, per se," and argued that Cuba's problems stem from losing free oil from Venezuela. He said Venezuela had decided to stop supplying free oil, and that Cuba used to resell a portion of it for cash rather than benefit the people.
TASS, the Russian state news agency, emphasized Rodriguez's framing that the US actions constitute a "criminal oil blockade" causing suffering to the Cuban people, and noted that Rodriguez accused Rubio of contradicting both the president and the White House press secretary.
Key Claims
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called statements by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio false, saying Rubio "simply chose to lie."
Rodriguez said that over four months, only one shipment of fuel has arrived in Cuba, and that all suppliers are subjected to intimidation and threats.
Both outlets reported that Cuba has been suffering from an energy crisis since January, when US forces seized Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and Washington threatened tariffs on countries sending crude to Cuba.
TASS reported that US President Donald Trump signed an order threatening tariffs on countries exporting fuel to Cuba, and that a new US administration order of May 1 introduced secondary sanctions in the energy sector.
The Hindu reported that additional sanctions against Cuba's energy sector were announced by Donald Trump on May 1, and that Washington has allowed only one Russian oil tanker to arrive at the end of March, which Trump described as a one-off shipment.
TASS identified the tanker as the Russian vessel Anatoly Kolodkin, which delivered 100,000 tons of oil to Cuba, significantly easing the country's difficult energy situation.
Both reports noted that no oil shipments had reached Cuba since December, when the United States began blocking fuel tankers from Venezuela, previously Cuba's main supplier.
How each outlet told it
TASS — English
Framing: Cuba denies US claims of no oil blockade — condemning of US policy
Facts Included:
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called US Secretary of State Marco Rubio's statements false
US intimidation and threats against oil suppliers to Cuba
Only one shipment of fuel has arrived in Cuba in over four months
Details about the Russian oil tanker delivery in March
US president signed an order threatening tariffs on countries that export fuel to Cuba
Each row is one claim, attributed to the outlet whose wording states it most clearly. Confidence rates how directly the source text states the claim — explicit and unhedged rates high; hedged, pieced-together, or internally inconsistent statements rate lower. It does not measure whether the claim is true. Status counts the distinct outlets we found asserting it — so a single-source claim can still show high confidence, and a multi-source claim can show medium. Every one of those outlets is named beside the status, so you can check the count against the list. For claims extracted before we began storing that list, the row says so: it names the outlet the claim is quoted from and states that we have not recorded which outlets backed it. Outlets wrote at different times, so a figure that evolves — a casualty count, for example — can legitimately differ between rows; check the "as of" time next to each claim's source.
Claim
Confidence
Status
ClaimCuba has been suffering from an energy crisis since January.
ConfidenceHigh
StatusMulti-source quoted from The Hindu — Worldthe outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimUS Secretary of State Marco Rubio denied that the United States was carrying out an oil blockade on Cuba.
ConfidenceHigh
StatusMulti-source quoted from The Hindu — Worldthe outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimCuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez responded to Marco Rubio's comments, calling them false.
ConfidenceHigh
StatusMulti-source quoted from The Hindu — Worldthe outlets behind this status were not recorded for this claim
ClaimUS forces seized Venezuela president Nicolas Maduro.