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3. Trump Declares Emergency Over Cuba, Targets Oil Exports, Cites Hamas, Hezbollah Ties

President Trump issued an executive order on Thursday declaring a national emergency over Cuba and detailing a policy of implementing secondary sanctions on countries exporting oil to Cuba. 

In the executive order, the Trump administration claims that Cuba hosts and cooperates with “dangerous adversaries” on its territory: Russia, China, and Iran, as well as allegedly providing space and support for Hamas and Hezbollah.

The document states that Cuba “[constitutes] an unusual and extraordinary threat…to the national security and foreign policy of the United States” and cites the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and the National Emergencies Act to characterize Cuba as an existential threat to the U.S.

Cuba hosts the largest Russian overseas signal intelligence facility which the administration asserts Russia uses to obtain sensitive national security information.

Beyond Trump’s security concerns, he accuses the Cuban regime of severe human rights abuses, systemic political repression, exporting communist influence in the Western Hemisphere, and suppression of free speech, press, and religion.

“The Cuban communist regime supports terrorism and destabilizes the region through migration and violence,” the executive order asserted.

The U.S. intervention in Venezuela already stresses Cuba’s energy supply chain, which provided roughly one-third of Cuba’s oil according to the Financial Times. Mexico and Russia have also been key providers of oil to Cuba and would be affected by any implementation of secondary sanctions.

Following the January 3 military operation in Venezuela and the elevation of the Western Hemisphere as a top priority in the Trump administration’s 2026 National Defense Strategy, the U.S. has adopted a policy aimed at limiting external powers’ influence in the Americas, the so-called “Don-roe Doctrine.”

The executive order will be in effect as of 12:01 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on January 30

The full executive order can be read here: https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2026/01/addressing-threats-to-the-united-states-by-the-government-of-cuba/