Russian oil tanker the first oil shipment to reach Cuba since January

A Russian oil tanker has arrived in Cuba, the first oil shipment to reach the island

nascent since January, Cuba has been under a de facto oil blockade ever since the United

States seized Venezuelan leader Nicholas Maduro, a staunch ally of the Cuban government

and has been providing the country with oil and had been providing the country with oil

at preferential rates.

Several shortages have caused nationwide blackouts while access to food, water and medical

care have also been significantly impacted.

Petro E. Friday is a Cuban American and shares the Ackerman law firm's international

practice and has advised U.S. companies on doing business in Cuba he joined me earlier.

This is the first fuel that's entered Havana since the start of January, how significant

is this development?

I think it's significant in the sense that it eases the very, very dire situation that

Cuba had and I think it's a reflection on the extent of the crunch that had been put

on Cuba, which is having all sorts of widespread effects in society, you know, things like hospitals

and emergency services and so on.

So I think it's a reflection on that and it's a reflection on the thought process of

I think the U.S. administration, particularly Secretary Rubio who is a Cuban American in

understanding that you can certainly exert pressure, but you've got to be careful not to

throw the baby out with the bath water.

And just remind us how we got here in terms of how this links into what happened in Venezuela.

You know, there is certainly a persuasion and a push in this administration to, you

know, deal with these regimes in Latin America that have been there for quite a long time.

Countries that are in dire circumstances, the systems simply don't work.

Countries that have bad histories in terms of human abuses, human rights abuses.

And I think this administration just with this new concept of this new policy has taken

the initiative and just finishing them and ending the agony in some way or another.

So this Russian vessel has been allowed to arrive.

Why has the Trump administration let this one come through?

That's an excellent question and the question has been posed as to why a Russian vessel.

I think, you know, that the Russian, I'll be handed, I think firstly, that humanitarian

thing.

But second, in terms of why the Russian vessel, why now, Russia, as you know, has this shadow

tanker fleet with a bunch of ships floating around in mid-Ocean with substantial cargoes.

And you know, the other thing is the U.S. is dealing diplomatically with Russia and the

issue of Ukraine and the issue of Iran and so on.

So I wouldn't put it past us that we've got some kind of an arrangement with Russia, some

kind of tit for tat where they look good, delivering the oil.

We solve the immediate humanitarian issues and it's part of a larger, of a larger game

being played.

Russia has called this a humanitarian shipment, but how much will Moscow be getting paid

for it, do you think?

I'm not sure they're going to get paid anything.

Cuba is simply flat broke.

There's no other way to say it.

They have no money.

They have no capability to pay.

So I have no clue as to how Russia is getting value for this.

I do know that Russia and Cuba have very strong relationships.

There may be a quick walk on something else, but certainly hard cash is very difficult

for Cuba to come by these days.

President Trump has recently said that Cuba is finished and he said that it's next.

What's the view on what might happen next in relations between the U.S. and Cuba?

I think that everybody looked at Venezuela as the model where there was this sort of a

very neat, if you can call that, surgical military, or how they call it in the U.S. a kinetic

action to grab the president of Venezuela who was under indictment in the U.S. and

that tripped a series of changes and now our ambassador is back there, the embassy is

working, the U.S. has granted a number of licenses for oil to move and so forth.

And it's been relatively painless in sense of the political cost to the U.S. and I think

that was kind of the model, but Cuba is very different from Venezuela.

So it's going to be a little more, it's going to be more nuanced in how it's done.

Pedro, you're a Cuban American.

What are you hearing about the situation on the ground in Cuba?

How desperate things are in some respects right now?

It is dire and the word that I keep hearing is exhaustion.

The population is exhausted, the model is exhausted, you know, the Cuba has lost roughly between

10 to 15% of its population in the past three years because people are leaving in droves.

If you can leave you leave, there's no hope for the future.

The system is simply not working, it's just, it has stopped working.

Not because of the lack of fuel, it stopped working before that.

And they're out of options and the situation is just absolutely desperate.