Cuba sanctions: Trump targets state firms, ICAP leaders and US travellers
The Trump administration has stepped up pressure on Cuba by imposing new economic penalties on nine state-owned companies in the mining, metals and construction sectors, while also widening enforcement of US rules that bar Americans visiting the island from dealings with government-owned or affiliated businesses.
The move comes as Havana has rejected the sanctions, after several American citizens returning from Cuba after events linked to Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday were briefly detained at Miami airport, and as the island faces a worsening economic crisis.
The US Treasury and State departments said the new penalties also target the leadership of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the institute is responsible for sponsoring “a vast subversive network in the United States aimed at identifying, cultivating, and radicalizing” Americans.
Rubio said, “Just days ago, the regime attempted to use Communist kingpin and despot Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday to reinvigorate this subversive network, ferrying a new brigade of international sympathizers to Havana to network with regime officials.” He added, “The Trump Administration will not stand by while a hostile foreign power seeks to exploit our freedoms – none of which are afforded to its people – by misleading and corrupting American citizens with lies, spy tradecraft, and other malfeasance as part of the regime’s raison d’tre of exporting Marxism, racial resentment, and Communist violence across the world.”
The Republican administration has steadily increased pressure on Havana, threatening it with possible military intervention even while it was involved in a conflict against Iran, and tightening economic sanctions aimed at cutting off funding for the Cuban government. An oil blockade that the US imposed on Cuba after the American military raid that ousted Venezuelan leader Nicols Maduro, whose country had provided Cuba with free oil, has pushed the already weakened island into a deeper crisis.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodrguez rejected the sanctions in a post on his official X account, saying the United States and Rubio were pursuing the “deliberate aim of harming” the economy “to prevent the provision of basic services to the population”. He wrote, “In his failed obsession with Cuba, he is now targeting executives and officials from ICAP – an institution that, for over six decades, has promoted friendship, international solidarity, justice, and peace – the exact opposite of what the Secretary of State has always championed in his corrupt policy.”
The latest sanctions follow an operation at Miami airport last weekend in which several American citizens returning from Cuba after taking part in events marking Castro’s birthday were briefly detained, US officials said. Some of them had their mobile phones and other personal electronic devices seized for inspection. The officials said authorities had been prepared to detain dozens of returning activists for secondary screening, but far fewer were found to meet the criteria for enhanced questioning by Customs and Border Protection agents.
The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because details of the operation have not been made public, said those detained were later released and allowed to enter the US. They added that anyone detained and released could still face prosecution if it is found they violated US sanctions, which ban all transactions with Cuban government-owned entities, including restaurants, hotels and shops. The status of seized mobile phones, laptops and tablets was unclear.
The sanctions on ICAP’s leadership target its president, Fernando Gonzlez Llort, who was among five Cuban intelligence officers arrested in the US in 1998 and later released in 2014. They also target first vice president Noem Ramona Rabaza Fernndez and North America director Leima Martnez Freire. The sanctions on the metals, mining and construction sectors cover a nickel production company, two firms specialising in heavy industrial imports, a mineral resources company, the Cuban Ministry of Construction, a company that provides Cuban workers to foreign entities on the island, and two enterprises that import vehicles, automotive parts and construction materials.
The administration has also stepped up its campaign portraying Cuba as a serious national security threat. In a report released last month, the State Department accused the Cuban government of sponsoring or otherwise supporting left-wing and anti-American activism in the US for the past six decades. While Cuba has been sliding deeper into crisis for around five years, the oil blockade has driven the country into freefall, with fuel shortages causing sweeping blackouts, public transport largely disappearing, medicine shortages worsening, work hours being cut and tourism evaporating.
In summary, the latest US move combines fresh sanctions on Cuban officials and state-run firms with tighter scrutiny of Americans returning from Cuba, while Havana says Washington is deliberately damaging its economy as the island struggles with blackouts, shortages and a deepening crisis.
With PTI Inputs
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