The United States has announced a new round of sanctions targeting Cuban officials and state‑owned companies. Eight mining, metal, and building firms, the Ministry of Construction, and officials linked to the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) were added to the US roster of embargoed entities.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the designated figures were “ferrying a new brigade of international sympathisers to Havana to network with regime officials” in the lead‑up to Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday. He warned that the Cuban regime’s “raison d’être” remains the export of Marxism, racial resentment and Communist violence across the world.
The sanctions come amid a broader US strategy to punish Cuba for its subversive activities. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez condemned the move, claiming it will further harm an already beleaguered economy. He noted that the US oil blockade has left many Cuban public services in crisis, forcing hospitals to rely on emergency generators and producing frequent power cuts that have sparked rare protests.
ICAP, founded in 1960 by Castro, has long served to connect Cuba with like‑minded organisations globally. The newly sanctioned group’s president, Fernando Gonzalez Llort, is also part of a spy ring called the Cuban 5 that was involved in the Obama‑era prisoner exchange.
Cuba’s tourism industry has already collapsed under sustained pressure from U.S. sanctions, with the island’s aging electricity infrastructure hampering key sectors. While Cuba has previously denounced all sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, the new measures underscore the United States’ refusal to tolerate the regime’s ongoing repression and “subversive anti‑American activities.”
