Washington– The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, his wife and three other individuals, in the latest move by the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Cuba. Pressure on the island’s leadership Which drew immediate condemnation from Havana.
The sanctions include Alejandro Castro Espin, the only son of Former Cuban President Raul Castro And Velma Aspin. He served as an advisor to Cuba’s Defense and National Security Committee, and was present when Raúl Castro received then US President Barack Obama in Havana during a historic meeting in March 2016. Castro Espin’s son, Raúl Alejandro Castro Calles, was also included in the list.
New penalties come US President Donald Trump It has been threatening military action in Cuba since Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro was ousted in January and then ordered a military attack. Energy blockade This led to a bottleneck in fuel shipments to Cuba. This has led to Severe power outagesFood shortages and economic collapse across the island.
The threats gained additional weight after the US announcement Criminal charges against Raul Castro last month. The sanctions imposed Thursday, which followed Trump signing an executive order expanding sanctions against the island, freeze individuals’ property and bank accounts in the United States, but it is unclear how intertwined their finances are with the US financial system.
Richard Feinberg, a former US national security adviser for Latin America and professor emeritus of international political economy at the University of California, San Diego, said it was “highly unlikely” that the Cuban president and others had assets in the United States.
He said the sanctions “could be viewed as a prelude to intervention or increased pressure on the regime to reach an agreement,” adding that rhetoric from Trump and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio “could take you in either direction.”
Diaz-Canel accused Trump of making “new threatening statements against Cuba,” and said, “These measures aim to strengthen the blockade and escalate the conflict between Cuba and the United States.”
“This political blindness is in addition to the coercive measures implemented in recent weeks against our country, which are aimed at harming the Cuban people,” he wrote in a message on the X website. He added: “The aggression and deviation of the United States government will contradict our determination to confront the worst-case scenarios and resist the imperialist attack.”
He was asked Thursday whether his sanctions were intended to do that Accelerating the collapse of Cuba“We just want them to be well managed,” Trump said.
“The country is starving, it doesn’t have energy, it doesn’t have oil, it doesn’t have money, it doesn’t have anything. It has a beautiful piece of land. You can have beautiful resorts,” Trump told reporters at an unrelated event in the Oval Office.
In response to a question about whether Cuba was on the verge of collapse, he said: “It kind of collapsed,” and added, “We will deal with that as soon as we finish it.” Military operations in Iran.
“I like to do one thing at a time,” Trump said.
Trump intensified talk of regime change in Cuba after pledging to conduct a “friendly takeover” of the country if its leadership did not open its economy to American investment and expel America’s opponents.
Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who has long taken a hardline stance against Cuba’s socialist leadership, said Trump favored a deal but said he doubted the United States could find a diplomatic solution with the current government.
“Those listed today are directing or financing the regime and its efforts to mobilize its radical revolutionary movements in the United States and around the world,” Rubio said in a statement.
Rubio defended the Trump administration’s decision to impose escalating sanctions on Havana, the largest of which is against Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA, a business group run by Cuba’s Revolutionary Armed Forces.
In addition to Díaz-Canel, Bruno Rodriguez, Cuba’s foreign minister, said the “despicable annexation” of Díaz-Canel and others, including Cuban institutions and civil society organizations, “is the latest example of the US intervention plan to portray Cuba as a threat to US national security.”
“Every American action aimed at creating a scenario of conflict between the two countries is doomed to failure,” he wrote in a message on the
The new sanctions, which freeze any assets the targets may have in US jurisdictions or any assets falling into US jurisdictions, also apply to non-US entities that may do business with them.
In addition to individuals, the sanctions also target the Cuban Ministry of Defense. The Institute for Friendship with Peoples, which encourages conversations between peoples; Amistur Cuba, the arm of the institute that oversees specialized tourism on the island; And the revolution defense committees.
Diaz-Canel was chosen in 2018 to succeed Raul Castro and was the first person in decades to lead Cuba without bearing the Castro name.
Under his watch, the island slid into the worst economic and energy crisis in modern history, a situation exacerbated by severe sanctions imposed by the Trump administration.
Diaz-Canel’s wife, Liz Cuesta Peraza, also appeared on the sanctions list. She does not hold the title of First Lady, a title that was abolished during the revolution, but in reality she behaves as such, receiving other spouses such as Queen Letizia of Spain and accompanying her husband on official trips.
Her son, Miguel Añedo Cuesta, Díaz-Canel’s stepson, also faces sanctions.
“I’m honored to be on this list,” Liz Cuesta Peraza wrote on X late Thursday. “They never tire of political cynicism and stupidity.”
The new measure increases pressure on the Cuban government, but it is not the first time that the United States has imposed sanctions on heads of state or government and their relatives.
The United States struck former Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in the early 2000s, and recently targeted Maduro and his wife with sanctions.
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Cotto reported from San Juan, Puerto Rico. AP writer Andrea Rodriguez in Havana contributed to this report. Follow AP’s coverage of Latin America and the Caribbean on https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america