<\/p>\n
Gabriella Rodriguez, senior writing and rhetoric major, talks to her family in Cuba on the phone.\u00a0Rodriguez said her dad is struggling to find food and faces blackouts every single day.<\/p>\n
John Warner<\/p>\n
Amid Cuba’s ongoing fuel and economic crisis, Cuban students at UCF said they are worried about their families in Cuba, who are struggling to find food and keep the lights on.<\/p>\n
Living conditions in Cuba have\u00a0deteriorated<\/a>\u00a0over the last month due to tight restrictions imposed by the United States, which recently took control of Venezuelan oil supplies and threatened other nations that tried to supply oil to Cuba, according to the United Nations<\/a>.<\/p>\n Restricting Cuba from Venezuelan oil is intended to protect the United States against Cuba\u2019s \u201cmalign actions and policies,\u201d according to a Jan. 29 executive order<\/a>\u00a0signed by President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n Celine Matos, senior computer science major, is the former president of the Cuban American Student Association. She said she is worried about her family, who lives in Cuba.<\/p>\n Matos said that Cubans have been dealing with shortages of many things for quite a while, but in recent years, the situation has become much more difficult.<\/p>\n \u201cThis situation brings a lot of mixed emotions,\u201d Matos said. \u201cThere is worry for loved ones, frustration at the living conditions, and sometimes a feeling of helplessness because we are so far away.”<\/p>\n Gabriella Rodriguez, senior writing and rhetoric major, lived in Cuba for the first nine years of her life. She said the situation in her home country is just getting worse.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n Rodriguez said her father still lives in Cuba and is struggling to get basic necessities.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s more worrying about the fact that there\u2019s no food there,\u201d Rodriguez said. \u201cHe goes out every single day, and it\u2019s just difficult to get food and money.”\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cPeople in Cuba have been dealing with basic shortages for quite a while, but in recent years the situation has become more difficult,\u201d Matos said.<\/p>\n The living conditions in Cuba have worsened to the point of \u201chumanitarian risk,” according to the U.N<\/a>.\u00a0This comes after the United States removed former Venezuelan President Nichol\u00e1s Maduro from power and cut off Cuba from the Venezuelan oil supply. Venezuela alone was responsible for providing over half<\/a> of Cuba’s oil supply.<\/p>\n \u201cIf Trump is really serious about regime change there, maybe it is now going to the next level, like kidnapping the leader of Venezuela or dropping bombs like we\u2019re doing in Iran,\u201d said Dr. Aubrey Jewett, associate director of the School of Politics, Security and International Affairs at UCF.<\/p>\n