The US State Department\u2019s co-ordinator for Cuban affairs, Rob Allison, met recently in Havana with senior representatives of the Catholic Church, the US Embassy in Havana said Friday on X, without saying when the meetings took place.<\/p>\n
US President Donald Trump’s Administration has blocked oil to Cuba since January 9, worsening its crisis. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
The embassy posted a picture of Rob Allison and the US charge d\u2019affaires in Cuba, Mike Hammer, meeting with Cardinal Juan de la Claridad and Bishop Arturo Gonzalez, president of the national bishop\u2019s conference.<\/p>\n
The four discussed humanitarian aid sent by Washington to the island \u201cand the need for change to improve the situation in Cuba\u201d, the embassy said.<\/p>\n
Trump has repeatedly said he believes the Cuban regime is ripe for collapse.<\/p>\n
In an apparent attempt to precipitate its demise, he imposed an energy blockade on the Caribbean nation.<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead efforts for regime change in Cuba. Photo \/ Getty Images<\/p>\n
The Cuban state has received no oil shipments since January 9, forcing airlines to curtail or suspend flights to the island and deepening a long-running economic crisis.<\/p>\n
Havana accuses Trump of seeking to strangle Cuba\u2019s economy.<\/p>\n
The island, under a US trade embargo since 1962, has for years been mired in a severe crisis marked by extended power cuts and shortages of fuel, medicine and food.<\/p>\n
Washington recently eased its oil blockade slightly to allow private companies in Cuba to import small amounts of oil.<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, two-thirds of the island suffered a blackout after a breakdown at the Antonio Guiteras power plant, the island\u2019s largest.<\/p>\n
Power has since been restored to most households.<\/p>\n
The Catholic Church has previously served as a mediator between Washington and the Cuban Government.<\/p>\n
Pope Francis negotiated a resumption of diplomatic relations with Washington under President Barack Obama in 2015, after decades of Cold War estrangement.<\/p>\n
The Vatican also negotiated a deal between Havana and former US President Joe Biden, under which Havana released hundreds of political prisoners in return for being removed from a US list of state sponsors of terror.<\/p>\n
Trump put Cuba back on the terror list on his first day back in power in January 2025.<\/p>\n
\u2013 Agence France-Presse<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The US State Department\u2019s co-ordinator for Cuban affairs, Rob Allison, met recently in Havana with senior representatives of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":316832,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[74,26345,162834,171714,6150,56270,28277,2178,3806,1667,3592,156250,42,16609,2514,10110,43,1536,90,74855,2572,56769,312,2249,40,38,41,39,2179],"class_list":{"0":"post-316831","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-after","9":"tag-agenda","10":"tag-blockade","11":"tag-communistrun","12":"tag-conflict","13":"tag-crippled","14":"tag-cuba","15":"tag-donald","16":"tag-east","17":"tag-energy","18":"tag-fall","19":"tag-gonna","20":"tag-headlines","21":"tag-iran","22":"tag-island","23":"tag-middle","24":"tag-news","25":"tag-next","26":"tag-on","27":"tag-predicting","28":"tag-president","29":"tag-pretty","30":"tag-says","31":"tag-soon","32":"tag-top-news","33":"tag-top-stories","34":"tag-topnews","35":"tag-topstories","36":"tag-trump"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316831","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=316831"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/316831\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/316832"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=316831"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=316831"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=316831"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}