Cuba Reportedly Pleads With Vatican To Get The US Off Its Back As Energy Crisis Grows

Cuban officials have reportedly petitioned the Vatican to advocate for the island nation in an effort to maintain power and secure aid as the communist country struggles amid an energy crisis.

The crisis, which has resulted in rolling blackouts, arose following a late January executive order characterizing Cuba as an “unusual and extraordinary threat” and imposing a tariff on any country that provides or sells oil to Cuba.

In the two months since the de facto oil blockade was put into place, the Cuban government has conducted senior-level meetings with Holy See officials — including the pope — in the hopes that they would function as an interlocutor between Cuba and the U.S., according to The Washington Post (Post). (RELATED: Raid On Christian Town Sparks Violence, Protest Before Palm Sunday: REPORT)

On Feb. 20, the senior diplomat at the U.S. Embassy in Havana, Mike Hammer, and the U.S. ambassador to the Holy See, Brian Burch, held meetings with Latin American ambassadors to the Vatican, according to the Post.

They spoke of “how to work with the Church to support the Cuban people’s desire for economic opportunity and freedom,” the outlet reported. The U.S. diplomats reportedly also met with Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher.

Hammer told the Latin American Church diplomats that Cuba’s regime would fall “in a matter of days,” a person familiar told the outlet.

Hammer and Burch also held a meeting with Vatican Secretary of State Cardinal Pietro Parolin. A source familiar with the conversation said the Vatican hopes for a resolution that is “not as traumatic” as Trump’s arrest of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro.

TOPSHOT – Pope Leo XIV arrives to lead a mass for Palm Sunday at St Peter’s square in the Vatican on March 29, 2026. (Photo by Tiziana FABI / AFP via Getty Images)

A State Department spokesperson told the Daily Caller that Cuba’s fuel crisis is not the result of any new U.S. restrictions, as humanitarian organizations including Church groups are free to import fuel into Cuba “so long as regime-affiliated parties are not involved.”

Instead, the department claims that the fuel crisis is the result of Cuba losing “subsidies from Maduro’s illegitimate Venezuelan criminal organization.”

“The administration is not going to let the Vatican dictate its Cuba policy,” a person familiar with the talks told the Post.

“The Cuban government could make changes that would mitigate them,” the source told the outlet. “So we’re not terribly excited about a quid pro quo because we really don’t need to do anything because they’re collapsing on their own and so, eventually, we’re [going to] get what we want.”

The State Department spokesperson told the Caller that the Catholic Church functions as an “important pillar” to Cubans, noting that the Church has worked with the department on several aspects of Cuba diplomacy, including the distribution of $9 million of U.S.-funded disaster relief and advocating for the release of prisoners of conscience.

TOPSHOT – Catholic faithful participate in the Good Friday Via Crucis procession along the streets of Havana on March 29, 2024. (Photo by YAMIL LAGE/AFP via Getty Images)

A source familiar said that while aid has been delivered to Cuba, the Church is resorting to the use of donkeys to deliver the food, as there is insufficient oil to fuel delivery trucks carrying aid, according to the Post.

Cuba has also announced the release of 51 prisoners in a sign of goodwill to the Vatican. The country is asking the Vatican to determine what Cuba’s “lowest common denominator” concession would need to be for President Donald Trump to relax his pressure campaign, the Post reported.

Cuba seems to believe that the Chicago-born pope, Leo XIV, could go a long way in negotiating with the U.S. over the Vatican’s concern for the country’s 11 million people. (RELATED: European Ally Gives US Middle Finger Over Iran War Again)

“The tragic conditions in Cuba are the result of the regime’s incompetence, failures and abuses,” the State Department told the Caller. “For decades, the regime has failed to produce an economic system that works or can provide for the Cuban people — stifling growth and prosperity to preserve total regime control on the island.”