THE CARIBBEAN CHESSBOARD: TRUMP’S OIL BLOCKADE VS. HAVANA’S LAST LIFELINE

By JOHN McCARTHY/V.I. Free Press Staff

While we are inviting Elon Musk to refine his capital in the USVI, a different kind of refinery war is exploding just across the water. President Trump has officially signed the “Energy Firewall” mandate, and the tankers are now caught in the crosshairs.

Mexico’s President Sheinbaum is in a 2026 vice: Do you keep the lights on in Havana, or do you face a 25% tariff on every barrel of Pemex oil crossing into Texas? The clock is at 15 days of fuel left. This isn’t just news; it’s a regional survival game.

John McCarthy

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John F. McCarthy is a veteran journalist in the Caribbean, writing from the "Decision Space" where survival meets the surreal. His reporting steel was tempered by a lineage of legendary editors and broadcasters, including Ed Wynn Brant (The Bomb), Owen Eschenroder (Ann Arbor News), Lynelle Emanuel (BVI Beacon), and Charles Thanas (WSVI-TV). Alongside longtime colleague Kenneth C. "Casey" Clark, McCarthy has navigated the front lines of the territory’s history—from the 1997 volcanic "snow" to every major hurricane since Hugo. Known for leaning out of doorless helicopters to capture the "money shot," McCarthy now edits the V.I. Free Press, providing the essential link between the island's colonial past and its SpaceX future.