Canada moves to help Cuba as US pressure tightens

Canada is preparing an assistance package for Cuba just as the island’s fuel crisis deepens under a new round of US economic pressure, a move that quietly places Ottawa on a different track from Washington at a moment of already strained relations.

Foreign Minister Anita Anand said the government was working on a plan but declined to spell out what it would contain.

“We are preparing a plan to assist. We are not prepared at this point to provide any further details of the announcement,” she said, framing the decision as a response to a rapidly worsening humanitarian outlook.

The backdrop is a sharp escalation in US policy. The Trump administration has moved to block oil shipments to Cuba — including supplies that had long come from Venezuela — a step that has driven up transport and food costs and triggered rolling blackouts across the country. The United Nations has warned the energy shortfall could tip into a full humanitarian crisis if it is not eased.

Cuba’s dependence on imported fuel makes it especially vulnerable to that squeeze. The halt in Venezuelan deliveries after the US operation that removed President Nicolás Maduro — followed by Mexico’s suspension of shipments under US pressure — has left the island scrambling for alternatives and forced airlines to cancel flights because jet fuel is no longer reliably available.

For Canada, the calculation is not only humanitarian. Canadian tourists are a cornerstone of Cuba’s travel industry, and Canadian companies are among the largest foreign investors on the island, particularly in mining and tourism.  Keeping the Cuban economy from seizing up entirely is therefore tied to Ottawa’s own economic footprint in the Caribbean.

The decision also lands in the middle of a broader political chill between the two North American allies. Trade disputes, Trump’s rhetoric on Greenland, Canada’s attempts to deepen ties with China and Prime Minister Mark Carney’s call for “middle powers” to avoid being dominated by US policy have all added friction.

Trump has made clear he intends to keep the pressure on Havana, predicting the Cuban government will soon collapse and linking the island’s fate to the broader campaign that followed the January raid in Venezuela.  Human rights officials at the UN have already said that operation violated international law, a reminder that the Cuba crisis is unfolding inside a much larger geopolitical confrontation.