The Cuban government rejected a request from the U.S. Embassy in Havana to import diesel for its generators, as the island grapples with a fuel shortage due to a blockade imposed by the Trump administration earlier this year.
Citing diplomatic cables, The Washington Post reported the embassy warned the State Department on Wednesday that the denial could force nonessential staff to leave the Caribbean island in May or “possibly earlier.”
The embassy sought permission to import two containers of fuel from the U.S., per the Post.
The Ministry interprets as shameless the claim by the diplomatic mission to access a good as a privilege that it denies to the Cuban people,” the Cuban Foreign Ministry reportedly said in its refusal, according to a State Department translation.