Venezuelan oil rerouted to Israel as US blockades Cuba

As the US blocks countries from sending oil to Cuba, it has also made sure that Venezuelan oil gets to Israel for the first time in years.

US diverting Venezuelan oil away from Cuba, and towards Israel

After Washington’s illegal invasion of Venezuela in early January 2026, during which it abducted the country’s president Nicolás Maduro, the US took control of the oil leaving the Latin American nation. That meant it could ensure once and for all that Venezuelan oil wouldn’t go to Cuba anymore.

But this imperialist oil game wasn’t just about strangling Cuba, apparently. It was also about ensuring Venezuela’s oil could go to US allies, like the genocidal settler-colonial state of Israel. As Drop Site News has reported, the US has now overseen:

a crude oil cargo to Bazan Group, Israel’s largest refinery.

The US has also received oil, along with India, currently under the far–right government of Narendra Modi, and Europe.

Venezuela had been a longstanding critic of Israel’s crimes against the Palestinian people before the US coup. And while the current government may not have decided to send oil to Israel now, it’s not doing anything to stop it either.

Venezuela isn’t under the rule of the empire’s ideal candidate — pro-Israel privatiser María Corina Machado. But in terms of foreign policy at least, the US seems to have successfully neutered Venezuela’s government.

Any resistance to US terror in Latin America?

Cuba has long been an example of independence, right next to the US. And Washington’s political elites have long agreed that they can’t allow this to challenge US rule and influence elsewhere. The government of Donald Trump is just tightening the stranglehold to manufacture a full-blown humanitarian crisis in Cuba.

US secretary of state Marco Rubio is a fervent war hawk on Latin America, and on Cuba in particular. And he’s not just:

personally overseeing the starvation of an entire nation.

He’s also been lying to his president in the process:

There has been some resistance from within the US. But it’s been minimal and symbolic:

In the rest of Latin America and the world, there have been some words of solidarity for Cuba. But there have been few actions that really make a difference, such as Mexico’s shipments of aid to the island. The US has even pressured other Caribbean nations not to let their citizens study medicine in Cuba.

Amid this isolation, Cuba has set up a crisis plan. This includes ramping up solar generation and the use of:

renewable resources to ensure electricity for vital services

China has supported Cuba’s installation of solar panels in the last couple of years, bringing this source of energy up to “38 percent of its daytime generation“.

According to Al Jazeera, however, the UN team on the island has noted that the “number of people in vulnerable situations” has been “increasing significantly” as a result of the tightening US stranglehold.

In short, the US isn’t just redirecting Venezuelan oil from Cuba to its allies in Israel and other places. It’s also committing the crime of collective punishment against the Cuban people. And unless the world stands up to US terror, there will be dire consequences for ordinary people.

Featured image via the Canary