Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the top Democrat on the House Rules Committee, said Thursday that the Trump administration’s naval blockade of Cuba is an act of war and that causing starvation of a civilian population is a war crime that “can be a crime against humanity,” escalating a months-long confrontation between congressional Democrats and the White House over the island’s collapsing energy system.
The Post
McGovern made the remarks in a post on X at 9:30 a.m. on Oct. 8, 2026. The post, in its entirety, read:
“I agree. A naval blockade is an act of war. Causing starvation of a civilian population is a war crime, and can be a crime against humanity. We should not mince words with what the Trump Administration is inflicting on the people of Cuba. It is cruel, vindictive, shameful and criminal. There must be accountability.”
The Trigger: A Fuel Ship Intercepted in the Caribbean
The post responded to a Guardian report on the latest U.S. enforcement action against fuel shipments headed to the island. The U.S. Coast Guard announced it had intercepted a large cargo ship, the Grace, which it said was carrying fuel to Cuba and “believed to be employing tactics common amongst the dark fleet.” The vessel is roughly 91 meters (300 feet) long.
A Coast Guard team boarded the ship and escorted it to Mexico, where a Mexican navy inspection team confirmed large quantities of fuel in the vessel’s ballast tanks. The ship also carried several containers believed to hold illicit fuel, the Coast Guard said.
Adm. Kevin Lunday, the Coast Guard commandant, framed the interception as law enforcement. “The high seas are not a sanctuary for lawlessness,” he said, adding that dark fleet actors who use deceptive tactics “will not evade justice.” The statement did not say how authorities knew the fuel was bound for Cuba or how much the Grace was carrying.
How the Blockade Took Shape
The pressure on Havana intensified after the U.S. operation in January that removed Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro, which ended Venezuelan oil shipments to the island. Mexico suspended its oil shipments to Cuba on Jan. 27. On Jan. 29, President Trump invoked new emergency powers to threaten tariffs on any country that sells oil, directly or indirectly, to Cuba. A senator’s floor statement dates the start of the oil blockade to Jan. 29.
The enforcement has continued this week. Reuters reported Wednesday that the United States said it had seized 90 separate shipments of biodiesel bound for Cuba worth nearly $3 million, the second such announcement in a week. Homeland Security said more than 600,000 gallons of fuel were seized. Reuters also reported that the administration is allowing only relatively small fuel shipments to reach Cuba’s private sector, in a program aimed at undercutting the Cuban government.
A Humanitarian Crisis
The human toll has drawn warnings from international bodies. In February, a UN spokesperson said Secretary-General António Guterres was extremely concerned that Cuba’s humanitarian situation would worsen, and possibly collapse, if its oil needs went unmet. Reuters has reported that the fuel blockade has been called “illegal” by the United Nations and “economic warfare” by Cuba’s government, and that it has sharply worsened blackouts, water shortages and inflation.
Sen. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) told the Senate in June that the misery in Cuba is largely due to the oil blockade, which he said imposes “collective punishment” on the island’s most vulnerable people. He also said he believes Cuba’s own repressive policies and economic mismanagement have caused hardship, and he urged Secretary of State Marco Rubio to weigh the human cost of the policy.
The Administration’s Position
The administration rejects the blockade framing. In June, U.S. Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz told a UN briefing that the actual reason Cubans lack electricity, fuel and food is not the embargo, and called the “oil blockade” claim “untrue and fake.” Trump has openly said his goal is to change Cuba’s government, a position Reuters and the Coast Guard’s own context for the interception both reflect.
McGovern’s Record on Cuba
McGovern’s post fits a long-running pattern. On Feb. 12, he introduced H.R. 7521, the United States-Cuba Trade Act, which would repeal or amend several laws that restrict trade, travel and telecommunications with Cuba. His office said it was a response to the Trump administration’s imposition of a total oil embargo. “America has had an embargo against Cuba for sixty years,” he said at the time, arguing in the same statement that the policy has hurt ordinary families more than Cuban elites.
Later that month, McGovern joined Sens. Elizabeth Warren and Ed Markey of Massachusetts in a letter to Trump urging him to lift the oil embargo. The lawmakers wrote that Cuba has not committed or threatened military aggression against the United States since the 1960s and lacks the capacity to pose a serious national security threat, and warned that intensifying fuel shortages risks destabilizing the wider Caribbean.
From Venezuela to Cuba
McGovern had opposed the Venezuela operation that set the Cuban crisis in motion. In a statement after Maduro’s removal, he called Maduro a brutal dictator while strongly condemning the decision to remove him by force. He said that, like the Iraq-era decisions of Bush and Cheney, the action was based on oil, and that Trump’s description of Venezuela’s reserves as “our oil” was the opposite of putting the Venezuelan people first.
He then led a House war powers resolution to block further hostilities there. The measure, H. Con. Res. 68, ended in a tie vote, which McGovern called important progress because it forced Republicans on the record, saying the Venezuela effort “isn’t about drugs or democracy, it’s about oil” and that the fight “is far from over.”
What the Language Means
McGovern’s wording is among the most pointed by a sitting member of Congress on the Cuba policy. Calling a blockade an act of war carries constitutional weight because the Constitution gives Congress, not the president, the power to declare war, the same principle McGovern invoked in the Venezuela debate. His reference to war crimes and crimes against humanity is a political and legal characterization, one the administration disputes, and no court or international body has ruled on it.
The Political Backdrop
The remarks come 26 days before the Nov. 3 midterm elections, in which all House seats are on the ballot. McGovern is the ranking member of the House Rules Committee and co-chair of the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission. On the prediction market Polymarket, Democrats are given a 91% chance of winning the House and Republicans 9%, a result that would put Democratic lawmakers in control of the committees that oversee the administration’s foreign policy and military actions.