An escalating fuel shortage in Cuba is causing massive disruption. Given Cuba's abject dependence on Venezuelan oil for its energy needs, U.S. sanctions on Venezuelan oil tankers means that the Cuban government is stuck. As the AP notes, Cubans are being forced to queue for many hours just for the chance to get a bit of fuel.

It's terrible to see Cubans suffer this way, but Trump should double down on this pressure campaign and use the situation to his advantage. This will encourage the Cuban government to drop its support for Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro, and it will invite Cubans to question whether their government has their interests at heart.

On the first point, it's crucial to note that the Cuban government is integral to Maduro's survival in power. Providing the dictator with support from its skilled DI intelligence service, Cuba enables Maduro to deter and defeat defections from Venezuelan security forces. Where insurrectionist movements have popped up, they have been quickly squashed, and fear prevents sympathizers from joining them and thus sharing their fate.

This Cuban penchant for subjugation is not surprising, of course.

After all, Communist Cuba is not, as many Europeans seem to believe, an island citadel of cool cars, vibrant colors, and rejuvenating mojitos. It is an island fortress of tyranny, ideologically defined by its support for other despotic regimes.

But that speaks to the second advantage of U.S. pressure here: forcing the Cuban government to explain to its citizens why they are suffering to prop up a regime that starves its children, prostitutes its professionals, and soon will likely create a cholera epidemic within its own borders. That is not a question that President Díaz-Canel can easily answer.

In turn, the United States should escalate its efforts to sanction illicit oil supplies to Cuba. And yes, those supplies are illicit — Venezuela's rightful constitutional leader opposes them as theft of his nation's resources.

It is unfortunate that U.S. sanctions tend to hurt innocent civilians more than their rulers. Still, whether toward North Korea, Iran, Venezuela, or Cuba, sanctions are an important tool short of military force to encourage policy changes. The humanitarian catastrophe in Venezuela is far greater than any suffering now underway in Cuba. But the two issues are connected, and the best way to get Venezuela back on track to rebuilding is to deny Maduro his ability to sell his stolen oil. That means denying Cuba a rationale to keep supporting his disgusting regime.