US Expands Cuba Sanctions to Include Raul Castro’s Grandson and Five Organizations | Ukraine news

Washington’s latest move reaches beyond state institutions, targeting a member of the Castro family and businesses tied to Cuba’s fragile energy system.

The United States has expanded sanctions against Cuba, adding 31-year-old Fidel Ernesto Castro Callis – one of the grandsons of the country’s former president, Raúl Castro – to a new restrictions list.

This is reported by Bloomberg.

The decision was made by the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, known by its acronym OFAC. Restrictions were also imposed on several Cuban organizations.

Fidel Ernesto Castro Callis is the son of Alejandro Castro Espín, a senior official at Cuba’s Ministry of the Interior. The United States imposed sanctions on him back in June.

Another of Raúl Castro’s grandsons, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, was not included in the new list. He had previously been considered a potential intermediary in the prolonged negotiations between Washington and Havana.

These steps reflect President Trump’s unwavering vision of a free Cuba – a country where the regime’s illegal financial networks, repressive apparatus, and entrenched power structures from the Castro era will be dismantled, and where the nation’s future will belong to the Cuban people, not their oppressors.

– Marco Rubio, U.S. Secretary of State

Why the sanctions against ABAPET matter

A sanctions expert called the addition of ABAPET to the list particularly important. The company is involved in procuring resources needed to maintain Cuba’s aging power plants.

Cuba needs approximately 100,000 barrels of oil per day for domestic consumption. Its own production meets only about two-fifths of that demand.

After the Trump administration expanded sanctions in May, the restrictions covered at least 86 Cuban individuals and organizations. Washington continues to increase pressure on Havana following the halt in oil supplies from Venezuela – Cuba’s main ally. Since then, only one Russian tanker carrying an oil shipment has arrived on the island.