The Venezuelan state airline Conviasa announced this Tuesday that it will reschedule its scheduled flights to and from Cuba between February 10 and 19, following the crisis due to the lack of aviation fuel at the island’s airports due to the United States oil siege.
Likewise, the airline indicated, through a publication on Instagram, the rescheduling of its flights to Nicaragua due to the change in the visa policy for Cuban citizens that came into effect last Sunday.
The government of Nicaragua, co-chaired by Daniel Ortega and his wife, Rosario Murillo, announced that as of February 8, a change in the immigration visa classification for Cuban citizens comes into effect, going from category “A”, “visa exempt”, to “C”, “visa consulted at no cost”.
On the other hand, Cuba ran out of jet fuel this Monday due to the US oil siege.
The Cuban authorities informed the airlines last Sunday through the Notam communications service (Notice to Airmen) and the companies with daily flights to the island – mainly American, Spanish, Mexican and Panamanian – began to take emergency measures.
The Notam notice affected Cuba’s nine international airports and is, in principle, valid for one month, from February 10 to March 11.
Cuba was already in a total crisis, with a cumulative drop in GDP of more than 15%, according to different estimates, with a shortage of basic goods, prolonged daily blackouts, skyrocketing inflation, partial dollarization and mass migration.
The qualitative increase in US pressure in recent weeks, which comes on top of more than six decades of sanctions, leaves the island on the brink of the economic, energy and social abyss.
On January 3, after the military intervention in Caracas that ended with the capture of the president, Nicolás Maduro, the United States decreed the end of Venezuelan oil for Cuba; and on January 29, its president, Donald Trump, signed a presidential order that threatened tariffs on those who supplied crude oil to the island.
Venezuela (responsible for 30% of Cuban energy needs in 2025), Mexico and Russia have not sent oil to Cuba in recent weeks.
The Cuban government announced last week a tough package of contingency measures to try to survive without oil imports.
