The United States imposed sanctions Thursday on Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, his wife and three other individuals, in the latest move by the Trump administration to pressure the island’s leadership that drew immediate condemnation from Havana.
The new penalties come as U.S. President Donald Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba since ousting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January and then ordering an energy blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba. That has led to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.
The threats took on additional weight after the U.S. announced criminal charges against former Cuban president Raúl Castro last month.
The new penalties, which follow Trump signing an executive order expanding sanctions against the island, freeze individuals’ property and bank accounts in the U.S. But it’s unclear how intertwined their finances are with the U.S. financial system.
But it’s “pretty unlikely” Cuba’s president and others have assets in the U.S., said Richard Feinberg, former U.S. national security adviser on Latin America and professor emeritus of international political economy at the University of California, San Diego.
He said the sanctions “could be seen as preliminary to an intervention or increasing pressure on the regime to cut a deal,” adding that the rhetoric of Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio “could take you in either direction.”
Díaz-Canel accused Trump of making “new threatening statements against Cuba” and said “these measures are aimed at reinforcing the blockade and escalating the conflict between Cuba and the United States.”
“This political blindness adds to the coercive measures applied in recent weeks against our country, designed to harm the Cuban people,” he wrote on X. “The aggression and perversion of the U.S. government will clash with our resolve to confront the worst-case scenarios and resist the imperial onslaught.”
Asked if his sanctions were meant to accelerate Cuba’s collapse, Trump said, “We just want them to be a nicely run country.”
“The country is starving and it’s got no energy, it’s got no oil, it’s got no money, it’s got nothing. It’s got a beautiful piece of land. You could have beautiful resorts,” Trump told reporters at an unrelated event in the Oval Office.
Asked whether Cuba is close to collapsing, he said, “It’s sort of collapsed” and added that “we’re going to handle that as soon as we’ve finished” military operations in Iran.
“I like to do one thing at a time,” Trump said.
Díaz-Canel’s wife, Lis Cuesta Peraza, also appeared on the sanctions list. She does not hold the title of first lady, a title abolished during the revolution, but in practice she acts as such, receiving other spouses such as Queen Letizia of Spain and accompanying her husband on official trips.
“It is almost an honour to be on this ‘list,’ she wrote on X. “They never tire of ridicule and political stupidity.”
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