BASSETERRE, Saint Kitts and Nevis (AFP)—The United States on Wednesday notched down sanctions on Venezuelan oil exports to Cuba after the communist-run island plunged into an economic crisis, which alarmed leaders at a Caribbean summit.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, a Cuban-American who has spent his political career hoping to topple Havana’s government, was explaining the US approach at a summit of the Caribbean Community, or Caricom.

As Rubio held the closed-door talks in the tiny island nation of Saint Kitts and Nevis, the Treasury Department softened a sweeping ban on Venezuelan oil to Cuba imposed after US forces raided Caracas on January 3 and deposed leftist leader Nicolas Maduro.

The Treasury Department said it would allow “transactions that support the Cuban people” that include Venezuelan oil for “commercial and humanitarian use.”

To qualify, the exports would need to go through private businesses and not the vast government or military apparatus in the communist state.

The shift came as Caribbean leaders worried about a rapid collapse in Cuba, which had relied on Venezuela for around half of its fuel needs.

Speaking at the opening of the CARICOM summit on Tuesday, Jamaican Prime Minister Andrew Holness warned that a further deterioration in Cuba would impact stability across the Caribbean and trigger migration — the top political concern for US President Donald Trump.

“Humanitarian suffering serves no one,” Holness said. “A prolonged crisis in Cuba will not remain confined to Cuba.”

– Plea for ‘stability’ –

Holness called for “constructive dialogue between Cuba and the United States aimed at de-escalation, reform and stability.”

“We believe there is space, perhaps more space now than in years past, for pragmatic engagement.”

The summit’s host, Saint Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister Terrance Drew, also called for humanitarian support to Cuba, saying: “A destabilized Cuba will destabilize all of us.”

A medical doctor, Drew studied for seven years in Cuba and said friends there have told him of food scarcity, power outages and garbage strewn in the streets.

“I can only feel the pain of those who treated me so well when I was a student,” he said.

Rubio has previously also moved aggressively to cut off Cuba’s export of doctors around the region, a key source of both revenue and soft power for Havana.

The United States has maintained an embargo on Cuba almost continuously since Fidel Castro’s 1959 communist revolution.

Since becoming the top US diplomat, Rubio has publicly toned down calls for regime change and Trump has held off on further measures pushed by Cuban-American hardline critics of Havana, such as prohibiting the transfer of remittances.

– ‘Elephant in the room’ –

Kamla Persad-Bissessar, the prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago, said she empathized with the Cuban people but took issue with her Jamaican counterpart’s remarks.

“We cannot advocate for others to live under communism and dictatorship,” she said.

She also criticized CARICOM countries for their reticence, at least publicly, to back what she called the “elephant in the room” — US intervention in Venezuela.

Trinidad and Tobago, whose coast is visible from Venezuela, gave access to the US military in the run-up to the operation that ousted Maduro.

Persad-Bissessar thanked the Trump administration and also praised it for carrying out deadly strikes against alleged drug boats in the Caribbean.

Critics call the attacks legally and ethically dubious, but the Trinidadian prime minister credited the campaign with bringing down her country’s homicide rate by helping cut the flow of firearms from Venezuela.

Rubio is the highest-ranking US official ever to visit Saint Kitts and Nevis, a tiny former British colony reliant on beach tourism that was the birthplace of a US founding father, Alexander Hamilton.