Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Washington tightens the screws on Cuba’s economy, Mia Mottley wins a third term in Barbados’s elections, and Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show earns applause throughout the region.

Welcome back to Foreign Policy’s Latin America Brief.

The highlights this week: Washington tightens the screws on Cuba’s economy, Mia Mottley wins a third term in Barbados’s elections, and Bad Bunny’s Super Bowl halftime show earns applause throughout the region.

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Cuba’s already-dire economic crisis has worsened in the weeks since the United States captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and suggested that it wants political change at the top of Cuba’s communist government, too.

Washington is working to prohibit oil sales to the island via a naval buildup near Venezuela and a Jan. 29 tariff threat against other countries that might sell fuel to Havana. Cuba depends on such imports for part of its energy supply. The White House claims that Cuba poses a national security threat to the United States.

Fuel is dwindling fast. Fewer people are driving in Havana in order to preserve gasoline. Many are using charcoal or wood fires to cook. The tourism sector, a major part of the Cuban economy, is downsizing. International airlines are suspending flights to the island, and hotels are closing their doors. Multiple foreign embassies have reviewed plans for potential staff evacuations.

Late last week, Cuban officials said that the government would start to ration energy. As part of the rationing at a public hospital, a worker there told news site 14ymedio this week that “all surgeries and transportation of patients from other municipalities have been canceled because of lack of gasoline.” Medicine is also running low.

“Some of us who have a little business have a bit to eat, but many, many, many people do not have it,” pizzeria owner Isben Peralta told CBC. “It’s very, very bad.”

The top U.S. envoy in Cuba, Mike Hammer, told Telemundo on Tuesday that he was in talks with unspecified Cuban officials to bring about political change in the country this year. Hammer suggested that Washington sought to repeat its recent formula in Venezuela, where then-Vice President Delcy Rodríguez was willing to cooperate with U.S. demands. She became acting leader........

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