US-Cuba Pressure Campaign Explained: Blackouts, Embargo, No Formal Talks

The United States and Cuba are locked in a pressure campaign that has moved from rhetoric to rules, and the two governments describe it very differently. Washington says talks are ongoing; Havana says there are only open channels. This explainer lays out what is documented, what each side says and where the accounts conflict, drawing on Reuters reporting, a U.S. Treasury notice and United Nations experts. It is background for readers following US-Cuba relations, not a forecast.

What is documented

On October 5, Reuters reported that Lianys Torres Rivera, Cuba’s chargé d’affaires in Washington, said the two countries have kept ‘channels of communication’ but are not engaged in formal negotiations. She described meetings, phone calls and WhatsApp messages and said the sides had made no progress toward a negotiating agenda, according to the Reuters interview as republished by StreetInsider.

A State Department spokesperson responded, in the same report, that ‘talks are ongoing’ and that the Cuban government has been unwilling to agree to anything that would help the Cuban people. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez had said at the end of June that talks begun earlier this year had stalled, and in early September that none were under way or planned, Reuters reported.

At the United Nations last month, President Donald Trump said Secretary of State Marco Rubio was ‘deep into negotiations’ with Havana, and later predicted the two countries ‘will make a deal,’ adding, ‘I don’t think we’ll need the military,’ according to The Economic Times, which carried the Reuters report. The Cuban delegation walked out during his speech.

The new U.S. restrictions

The most concrete step is regulatory. A notice in the Federal Register on September 30, 2026 amended the Cuban Assets Control Regulations. A Treasury alert summarized by news outlets says U.S.-jurisdiction banks may not open or maintain accounts for Cuban independent private-sector entrepreneurs, and that certain travel authorizations, including group people-to-people educational travel, were removed with limited wind-down periods running through October 30.

Cuba’s diplomat said the measures contradict Washington’s stated wish to see Cuba expand private enterprise, per Reuters. The U.S. position, as relayed in the same report, is that Cuba’s reforms do not go far enough and that the island should hold ‘free and fair’ elections.

Cuba’s economic reforms

Under that pressure, Cuba’s National Assembly approved a package of 176 measures in June, which Reuters reported on June 18 as a sweeping change to the socialist model. Reported elements include more room for private firms, foreign investment and private banking. One outside analysis of the 176 measures notes that many of them need follow-up laws and regulations before they take effect, so their practical impact is still unclear.

Torres Rivera told Reuters that Cuba’s ‘red line’ is that it will not negotiate changes to its political system, and that it sees demands for the removal of its leadership as a violation of sovereignty.

Blackouts and the oil question

Daily life shows the strain most visibly. Using Union Eléctrica (UNE) reports, CiberCuba found outages above 2,000 megawatts on 23 of 28 days with national data between September 3 and October 2, averaging roughly 2,093 MW at the daily peak, as summarized by CubaHeadlines. The same article cites an EFE report that one Pinar del Río community received about two hours of electricity a day, and says ETECSA reported that more than 80 percent of its radio bases went offline during a national grid collapse on September 18. A separate CubaHeadlines item on October 10 reported expected peak-hour outages of up to 1,680 MW.

The causes are contested in emphasis. Cuban and outside reports cite plant failures, maintenance and fuel shortages. Reuters describes a U.S.-imposed oil blockade as straining the country. United Nations human rights experts have called the fuel measures a violation of international law and urged an end to what they called ‘energy starvation’.

For earlier background, see our report on Cuba’s economic collapse and energy crisis.

Why it matters beyond Cuba

Cuba sits at the intersection of several larger questions that The Boston Report tracks in its Geopolitics section: how far Washington will use sanctions and financial rules instead of force, how regional governments respond, and how humanitarian bodies assess economic pressure. Our coverage of Venezuela’s court reform and prisoner releases and of the Xi-Trump summit shows other pressure-and-negotiation tracks running at the same time.

The gap between the two governments’ accounts is itself a fact worth stating plainly: one side says negotiations are under way, the other says they are not. Until either publishes a document or names a venue, readers should treat claims about ‘talks’ as claims.

What to watch

Three indicators will clarify the picture: whether the Treasury’s wind-down dates on October 30 are extended or tightened, whether either government names a negotiating venue or participants, and whether grid data show any change in nationwide outage levels. We will update our coverage as official documents appear.

Sources

• Reuters via StreetInsider: Cuba and US maintain ‘channels of communication’ (Oct. 5, 2026)
• The Economic Times (Reuters): Channels are open, but Cuba and Trump’s US remain far from the negotiating table
• Federal Register: Cuban Assets Control Regulations (Sept. 30, 2026)
• Reuters: Cuban lawmakers approve sweeping reforms to socialist model (June 18, 2026)
• CubaHeadlines: Cuba’s struggle with power outages overshadows Yara Uprising anniversary
• CubaHeadlines: Cuba faces power outages of up to 1,680 MW during Saturday’s peak hours
• Reyes Manuel: Is Cuba’s economy opening? What the 176 measures mean for investors
• OHCHR: United States must end ‘energy starvation’ of Cuba, UN experts say (May 2026)

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