The Trump administration has issued fresh sanctions on Cuba’s oil and gas company as the island already faces a near-total fuel and naval blockade and worsening humanitarian crisis. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the announcement Thursday, claiming without evidence that Cuban officials “resell countless barrels of scarce energy on the secondary market, hoarding energy supplies for its military.” In response, Cuba’s Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodríguez said on social media, “The US Secretary of State, driven by … the vindictive sentiments of the elitist clique that propelled his political career, is now further tightening the [blockade]. To justify this, he doesn’t resort to excuses prepared by his State Department, but rather to the usual vulgar lies.”