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U.S. Oil Squeeze Cripples Cuba's Already Struggling Economy; Trump Says Rubio Leading Efforts to Negotiate With Cuban Officials; Lawmakers Call on DOJ to Reopen Criminal Investigation Into Raul Castro's Role in Humanitarian Mission Attack; White House Holds Daily Press Briefing; Mikaela Shiffrin Sensationally Wins Slalom Gold. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 18, 2026 - 13:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

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[13:33:11]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Cuba is fast running out of fuel, and that is bringing life there to a grinding halt. First, there was the U.S. military action in Venezuela, which cut off that supply. Then the threat of tariffs on Mexico.

The Trump administration effectively cutting off all of Cuba's flow of foreign oil with that move. Near-vacant hotels have been shuttered. Flights from Canada and Russia canceled, as there is not enough jet fuel left for longer international flights.

CNN Havana Bureau Chief, Patrick Oppmann has a look at the impact on daily life in Cuba.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN HAVANA BUREAU CHIEF (voice-over): Owning a classic car in Cuba used to be a goldmine. Until recently, Mandy Pruna earned more from one hour driving tourists in his vintage 1957 Chevrolet than most Cubans do in a month.

But he's no longer able to make a living. Just before taking me out for a spin, Mandy canceled his permit to work as a chauffeur.

MANDY PRUNA, IMPACTED BY FUEL SHORTAGES (through translator): Everything is uncertain at the moment, he says. There's no fuel. We don't know if there will be any and how we will pay for it. There's no tourism.

OPPMANN (voice-over): Cuba is becoming an increasingly paralyzed country, as the Trump administration's policy of blocking oil shipments from abroad cripples an already ailing economy.

Where just weeks ago, cars lined up for hours at the pump, now there's no one because there's no longer any gas. Each day, public transportation is harder to find. Many switch to bicycles.

OPPMANN: When I first came to Cuba, the Soviet Union had just fallen and there were more bikes on the road than there were cars. As this crisis goes on, it feels more and more like we're returning to those times.

OPPMANN (voice-over): The White House is strong-arming Cuba's communist-run government to open politically and economically in exchange for the fuel shipments to resume.

[13:35:00]

Cubans are seeing food prices soar as the crisis drags on.

ANAYASI, CUBAN FOOD VENDOR (through translator): We are paying two, three times as much to restock and keep people happy, a vendor tells me.

OPPMANN (voice-over): There's no food. And there's no immediate solution in sight.

OPPMANN: This is the kind of place that I buy vegetables for my family. Most of the products are coming from outside Havana. Transporting them from the countryside is going to get more difficult, if not impossible. Cuban officials have responded by saying people need to start growing their own food.

OPPMANN (voice-over): Cuba may just be weeks or perhaps days away from running out of fuel. A humanitarian disaster could be on the horizon. Already, many fishing boats sit idle.

MICHEL LOPEZ, CUBAN FISHERMAN (through translator): One can't work. The country is stuck. There's no industry. Nothing is happening, this fisherman tells me.

OPPMANN (voice-over): We will see how this ends. Until then, the best many Cubans can hope for is to stay afloat as their country goes under.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

OPPMANN (on camera): And Brianna, President Trump has called for a deal that would allow Cuban exiles to return, perhaps recover some of the property they lost when they fled this island.

We know there have been contacts between the two governments, but no signs of any progress at this point. And the Cubans that we've been in touch with over the last several weeks say they feel their situation is becoming more dire by the day, and they may be running out of time.

KEILAR: Wow, it is really at an inflection point there in Cuba. Patrick Oppmann, thank you so much for the reporting. Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CO-ANCHOR OF "CNN NEWS CENTRAL": Let's dig deeper on this with Republican Congressman, Carlos Gimenez of Florida, currently the only Cuban-born member of Congress. Thanks so much for sharing part of your afternoon with us, Congressman. So, three administration sources told Axios that Secretary of State, Rubio is bypassing the Cuban government and speaking directly to Raul Castro's grandson, Raulito. What do you know about those conversations?

REP. CARLOS GIMENEZ, (R-FL) ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: I don't know. I don't have specific information about it, but Marc Caputo, I think, who wrote the story, he's a pretty credible reporter. So if he's writing that there's direct conversations between Secretary of State, Marco Rubio and Raulito, I would believe it.

And it would make sense to me that that's what the course of action is.

SANCHEZ: Why would it make sense? I wonder if you would trust that Castro's grandson is open to liberalizing the economy to free elections.

GIMENEZ: It makes sense because it's really, the Castros are still running the place. And Raulito appears to be Raul's favorite grandson. And so, in essence, it's kind of a quasi-official line of communication with the people that are really running Cuba, which is still the Castro regime.

Everybody else is really, they're puppets of the Castros. And so, yeah, I would see where it would make sense to talk to somebody a little bit younger, somebody who has lived life a little bit outside Cuba. I understand Raul Castro's grandson goes around the world. And so he understands what the world is like.

And so I would think that that would be the way that the administration is going about this. And I have confidence that Secretary of State, Marco Rubio is doing the right thing and he's having the right conversations.

If it's going to come to fruition, I don't know. I don't know if this is going to bear fruit. But I think it's actually a pretty smart move.

SANCHEZ: I wonder about the approach. As you just heard from our reporter, we've seen increased blackouts, the cessation of public services across the island. You want the administration to go further, to end loopholes and Helms-Burton, the embargo, and to put more pressure on the regime. But you know, as you just said, Castro's grandson travels the world.

You know that the regime is largely untouched by this. They're insulated. So, isn't this pressure just putting more trouble in the hands of the oppressed, the people that don't have arms, that can't stand up against the government, the people that can't vote for change either?

GIMENEZ: No, this pressure will bring the, I believe -- to the breaking point. It's time that we topple the regime, that regime is toppled. Look, I look at it as a cancer patient. The cancer is the regime, all right? And we have to get rid of the cancer. Now, the cure is going to hurt. It's not going to be easy. But the patient has to go through the cure in order to get rid of the cancer. And believe me, the cancer is the regime. They destroyed the island. This used to be, you know, the jewel of the Caribbean. They used to have the second highest standard of living in the Western Hemisphere. And now, it has a standard of living that's below Haiti.

So, yeah, it's going to be tough. Yeah, it's going to hurt. But at the end, Cuba will be cured once and for all when this regime is toppled, and we have free and democratic Cuba, a friend of the United States, an ally of the United States, not an enemy of the United States.

[13:40:00]

SANCHEZ: But I wonder about the mechanism, Congressman. How are the people going to affect change if they're unarmed, if they're starving, and the regime doesn't actually feel the pain that the U.S. is inflicting on the island as a whole?

GIMENEZ: The regime is feeling the pain, all right? And so if you go back and say, well, OK, open everything up and, you know, the Cuban people will be OK, you're just prolonging the suffering. You're prolonging the abuse of the Cuban people. You're prolonging this regime, which has destroyed this island.

Yeah, like I said, the cure is going to be painful. But at the end, you're going to get rid of the cancer. And the cancer is this communist regime. It has to go.

SANCHEZ: Along with Representative Salazar and Diaz-Balart of South Florida, you're pushing for DOJ to reopen a criminal investigation into Raul Castro's potential role in the murder of four unarmed men that were taking part in this humanitarian mission in international water by the Cuban government. They were shot down.

The pilots were indicted and charged with murder. But now, you want Castro himself investigated. Is that because you want to see an indictment and potentially, the kind of operation that we saw in Venezuela with Maduro being extradited? Do you want to see that for Raul Castro?

GIMENEZ: I want to see justice for three American citizens and an American resident that were shot down over international waters. Raul Castro admitted that he gave the orders to shoot it down. And so, Raul Castro is guilty with his own words, of murder, murdering three American citizens and an American resident over international waters. And so, all I want to see is justice.

And I think that the family members and the folks here in my community want to see justice for that shoot down. Nothing ever happened. There may have been some indictments, but nothing ever happened to the real culprit, which is Raul Castro, which is this regime. That's why this regime has to go.

SANCHEZ: And yet, you're comfortable with the U.S. negotiating with someone who you acknowledge is a murderer, his grandson, and you believe that that grandson is going to bring about change by somehow betraying his grandfather and everything that they've stood for, for 70 years?

GIMENEZ: I didn't say I was comfortable with it. I just said it's pragmatic. OK? You have to -- what I'd be comfortable with, get them all and get them out of the island and move on, and then have them face justice in one way or another. That's what I would be really comfortable with.

But you know what? If what the secretary is doing leads to change, leads to a regime change and a change for the Cuban people, an opening up of the government, free elections, freedom to organize, freedom to have political -- I mean, to have different political parties, freedom of religion.

If that's what it leads to, then yeah, I may not like the mechanism, but yeah, you know, I'll be happy with the results. And so, I'm not real comfortable with him talking to him, but I understand why he's doing it. And so, look, all we want is for this regime to go.

All the Cuban people want is freedom, all right? Freedom that we enjoy here in this country and freedom that I've enjoyed in this country for over 65 years, and the people of Cuba have not had any of that for over 65 years. And they've been oppressed and repressed. They're political prisoners. No freedom of elections, nothing.

These thugs, this communist regime, lines their pockets, steals from the Cuban people in the name of ideology. You know, it's time for it to go. And yeah, like I said, it's going to be hard. It's not easy when, you know, the cure is not going to be easy. But at the end, the patient needs to be cured. And the patient is Cuba and the people of Cuba.

SANCHEZ: One last question, Congressman. You're talking about the pain that it's going to inflict and how it's going to hurt. We've seen over the decades different waves of migrants coming to the United States. Wouldn't a humanitarian crisis lead to another exodus of Cubans from the island coming to the United States where we're watching an immigration crackdown that you have voiced opposition to?

GIMENEZ: Look, I have no problem in securing the border. The wave of immigration that we had before is because we had open borders. We don't have open borders anymore. It's going to be a lot tougher for Cuba to release its pressure again, which is what it does.

Every time it faces a crisis, boom, a couple hundred thousand Cubans are released and then the pressure goes down. I don't think it's going to be that easy this time under this administration. They're not going to allow this kind of migration that other administrations have allowed in the past.

SANCHEZ: And Congressman Carlos Gimenez, we have to leave the conversation there. Appreciate your time. Thanks for joining us.

GIMENEZ: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Of course. Still plenty more news to come this afternoon. President Trump's press secretary is speaking to reporters right now. We're tracking that and we'll bring you the latest from the White House after a quick break.

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[13:49:35]

KEILAR: We are currently tracking White House Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, who is taking questions from the podium now. Let's listen in.

KAROLINE LEAVITT, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: That's why we believe it's in their best interest to make very dramatic changes very soon. And we'll see what they decide to do. Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you so much. Following up on Gaza, this $5 billion, who exactly would be in charge of managing this money? Would that be the president himself making the final decisions on how these funds are spent?

[13:50:00]

LEAVITT: It will be the Board of Peace, which the president is, of course, the Chairman of. All of the member parties, I believe, will have votes on the funding. And then, of course, there is that technocratic layer underneath the official Board of Peace with the member countries that will be making decisions as well.

So if you just go back and look at the first event that we had where we sort of unveiled the structure of the Board of Peace, that structure remains in place. And they'll be overseeing the funds that will be announced tomorrow for their reconstruction and humanitarian efforts. Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Karoline, another question on that Board of Peace announcement. You mentioned there will be the announcement of who comprises that International Stability Force. How soon will that force be deployed? And have all of the regional partners, all of the regional countries signed off on the makeup of that force?

LEAVITT: I don't have a timeline for you today. But again, I'm sure you'll hear more about this tomorrow. So you'll join us at the event. Deanna (ph)?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thanks, Karoline. Two questions.

LEAVITT: Sure.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: First, the president has talked a lot about housing affordability. And several countries that are facing housing shortages, including Canada, for example, have imposed a ban on non- citizens, like foreigners, from buying their houses. Do you know if that's a strategy that the president would be willing to deploy?

LEAVITT: Well, first of all, the president is obviously committed to deporting illegal aliens from our country and those who are not lawfully present in the United States, which he has done at a record pace, which has led to the falling of rents, as I pointed out in my opening remarks.

Secondly, the president has recently announced that he is fighting for a ban on institutional investors in Wall Street billionaire corporations from buying up single-family homes that should be lived in, in his opinion, by American families. We know this is going to have a remarkable impact on the housing market and on prices and supply and demand for the American consumer and the American family.

And then, thirdly, the president is also expediting permitting as fast as we possibly can to build more homes, to increase supply, to obviously bring down the cost of homeownership and purchasing homes for the American people.

And then also, as I mentioned as well, we do see mortgage rates falling. So, all of this is combining to make housing more affordable in this country. There's still a lot more to do. The president is still digging his way out of the mess that was created by Joe Biden's administration in jacking up mortgage rates and jacking up housing costs.

But we do see very positive trends in this direction. And the president wants the United States to be a nation of owners, not renters. He wants families to live in homes, not institutions and big corporations. Michael (ph)?

SANCHEZ: We've been listening to Press Secretary, Karoline Leavitt, at the White House, answering a number of questions. One, who will handle funds designated for the rebuilding of Gaza? She answered that the Board of Peace that the president is trying to install. Further, she was asked about housing costs as well. Her answer had to do with the president's immigration crackdown.

KEILAR: That's right. She was saying it's falling because of it. That certainly does deserve a fact check, I think.

Next, coming up, we'll be hearing from the Quad God himself. CNN caught up with Ilia Malinin after his heartbreaking and shocking loss. We are live at the Olympics right after this.

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[13:57:45]

SANCHEZ: American skiing icon, Mikaela Shiffrin cemented her spot as the most dominant skier in the world after winning gold today in the women's slalom. CNN Sports Anchor, Coy Wire is in Cortina with all the details.

And Coy, Shiffrin's victory ends an eight-year Olympic medal drought.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Man, what are we doing with our lives, Boris?

(LAUGH)

WIRE: Just when we think we are doing well, someone like Mikaela Shiffrin comes along and breaks an epic Olympic medal drought in epic fashion, winning gold in slalom. I was there, right there on those slopes behind me, to see it all, all the drama.

The winningest alpine skier of all time had failed to get an Olympic medal in the last eight years. The two skiers nearest her after round one, Boris, crashed out moments before Mikaela's second run. Was something wrong with the course? The crowd went silent.

You could hear a pin drop up there, but Mikaela, at 30-years-old, locked in and put up a masterclass, winning by 1.5 seconds. She posted a long -- afterwards, an 'I did it. I won' message on Instagram. But she had written it, Boris, the night before, manifesting the comeback after overcoming injuries and mental blocks. Mikaela became an Olympic champ again. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKAELA SHIFFRIN, THREE-TIME OLYMPIC GOLD MEDALIST: It's not always easy. Sometimes it feels impossible. But in the end, today, it was to take away the noise and to just be simple with it.

There will always be criticism, but I am here to earn the moment. And that is going to require some risk. Not the easiest thing to do, but in the end today, we could do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, Boris, just a bit ago, I interviewed Ilia Malinin, Team USA's figure skating Quad God, who hadn't lost a competition in two years, but then failed to medal at these games in the men's program. I asked him about his post on social media, saying those who appear the strongest may still be fighting invisible battles on the inside. Here's what Ilia had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ILIA MALININ, CLAIMED TEAM GOLD AT MILAN CORTINA: It might seem like I was doing very well, but of course, there's a side that not everyone gets to see, and it's really hard to deal with all of that. And, you know, at some point, you're going to have to release it because sometimes it's just too much to handle all at once. I'm definitely looking forward to what's next.

I mean, I'm ready to give it my all and I'm ready to just come back --