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The Trump administration’s decision to cut off foreign oil to the island is devastating its tourism industry, a key source of income for a government being pushed to the edge.
March 4, 2026, 5:00 a.m. ET
By the second week of Debbie Sutherland’s vacation to Cuba last month, there were ominous signs of trouble.
Gasoline was being rationed, excursions were canceled and all of the stores in a nearby mall were closed.
Ms. Sutherland’s hotel in Cayo Las Brujas, a part of a small chain of islands just north of central Cuba, reserved a block of rooms for stranded employees. That section of the hotel was completely dark: Only tourists got electricity.
Cuba has relied on tourism, and on sun-starved Canadian visitors above all others, as a key pillar of its collapsing economy.
“The Cuban people love Canadians,” said Ms. Sutherland, 64, a behavioral therapist from Ontario. “They would say, ‘You know, we would die without Canada.’”
But President Trump’s travel restrictions and move to to block all foreign oil from Cuba has brought the industry — already weakened after the Covid-19 pandemic — to its knees and intensified an economic meltdown threatening the government’s survival.
