US energy blockade leaves Cuban farmers struggling to feed a nation
[April 28, 2026] By
DÁNICA COTO
LAS MINAS, Cuba (AP) — Eduardo Obiols Sobredo struggles to feed Cubans
young and old, a task even harder now because of a U.S. energy blockade
that has caused sweeping water and power outages along with severe gas
shortages.
“I feel like crying,” the 58-year-old farmer said. “It’s so sad to see
crops grown with so much effort go to waste, especially when you know
there are so many who need them.”
Farming equipment is falling silent across Cuba, with no fuel to power
it. Farmers like Obiols Sobredo are turning to animal and manual labor,
but not everyone can afford it, and resources are limited.
As a result, poverty is deepening and hunger is increasing across Cuba,
a country of nearly 10 million people. The quality and quantity of fruit
and vegetables is diminishing, and prices are surging even further
beyond the means of many across the island nation.
While the Iran war pinches energy supplies around the world, Cuba is the
rare place blaming the Trump administration's targeted actions instead.
A spiraling crisis affects Cuba's most vulnerable
Cuba spent three months without a fuel shipment after the U.S. attacked
Venezuela, a key supplier, and threatened tariffs on any country that
sells or supplies oil to Cuba.
The island was already suffocating under a sharp increase in longtime
U.S. sanctions, which prevent it from importing certain goods. The Trump
administration demands that Cuba's socialist government release
political prisoners, implement major economic reforms and change its way
of governance to avoid becoming a national security threat. Cuba has
repeatedly said it poses no threat to the U.S.
As tensions remain high, top-ranking officials are visiting farmers
across Cuba, urging them to step up production so the country can be
even more self-sufficient.
But the effects of the U.S. energy blockade are stark in the town of Las
Minas, which has 65 farmers and only 18 oxen.
Obiols Sobredo rents the animals and their handlers when they're
available, but he relies on manual labor for smaller jobs on his farm.
He grows tomatoes, sorghum, cassava and other crops. He also raises
goats, whose milk is served at schools.
He and others farmers are part of a network that supports Cuba's most
vulnerable, including people in orphanages and nursing homes.
Clearing his land once took 15 minutes with farm equipment. It now takes
at least three days. January was the last time he received the usual
monthly supply of gasoline from the government.
“It has forced us to take other kinds of actions in order to survive,”
Obiols Sobredo said.
The lack of petroleum also means the delivery truck doesn’t always
arrive, forcing farmers to use what little gas they have to transport
milk to a location where they freeze it, in the hope it won't spoil
before being picked up.
Power outages also prevent Obiols Sobredo from grinding food for his
goats, which produce less milk because of insufficient nutrition.
He also can’t water his crops enough. A nonprofit last year financed a
solar irrigation system for his farm, but he needs gasoline to set it
up. He relies on rain that hasn’t fallen in nearly two months.
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A man carries a crate of bananas in Minas, Havana province, Cuba,
Monday, April 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa)
 ‘They know things are bad’
Suppliers are relying more often on horse-drawn carts to transport
produce, which becomes bruised during long trips to markets.
At a state market in Havana, where prices are relatively lower,
68-year-old shopper Juan Lázaro lamented the state of some fruits
and vegetables.
“Look,” he said, pointing to a pile of small, greenish tomatoes.
“They’re lacking fertilizer, you can tell they’re lacking water.
Look at their color.”
Lázaro is a retired industrial mechanic but was forced to start
working at a small convenience store to make ends meet. On a recent
afternoon, he bought six potatoes as a rare treat.
“I’ve had to cut back. I either buy bread or I buy potatoes,” he
said.
He added that Cuba’s current crises are much worse than the
so-called “Special Period” in the 1990s, when cuts in aid following
the dismantling of the Soviet Union sparked deprivation. “We’ve been
hitting rock bottom for a while.”
Another shopper, 64-year-old Griselle Guillot, now wavers about
buying rice.
“I need to see how much I can buy, because I also need onions,” she
said.
Anthony Batista Guerra, a 47-year-old produce vendor, said there’s
no need to explain the change in quality and supply to customers:
“They know things are bad right now.”
As the state market began to close, one vendor threw a tomato into
the gutter. Shoppers had found it unfit to buy.
‘My goal is to survive’
On a humid morning, 82-year-old Argelio González Juvier used a hoe
to fight weeds around cassava plants on the farm where he works.
An official with Cuba’s interior ministry who retired in 1995, he
now has been forced to work again to boost his income and chose
farming.
“The earth provides everything. That’s what we should focus on,” he
said. “We have no other alternative.”
He criticized the U.S. energy blockade, calling it a crime.
“Cuba doesn’t deserve what they’re doing to us," he said. "The
Americans think they’re the owners of the world.”
Working alongside González Juvier was 36-year-old Jordanis Ríos. He
used to be a truck driver hauling sand, gravel and stone, but the
lack of gasoline left him without a job.
He now wields a machete to clear farmland, hacking at yellowing
grass every morning for $4 a day. He longs to return to his truck.
“My job is there. Just waiting for the country to improve,” he said.
Ríos did not want to speculate about recent talks between the U.S.
and Cuba, with American diplomats flying to the island earlier this
month for the first time since 2016. Details remain secret, although
Cuba has said its priority is for the U.S. to lift the blockade.
Ríos said it's all in the hands of officials: “My goal is to survive
here and see what happens.”
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