President Donald Trump’s administration is increasing pressure on Cuba by imposing more economic penalties on industries in the heavily sanctioned country and broadening enforcement of laws that bar Americans who visit the island from dealings with government-owned or -affiliated businesses.
The Treasury and State departments announced Thursday that they are leveling new penalties against nine state-owned mining, metal and construction companies along with 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.
Trump’s Republican administration has steadily ratcheted up pressure on Havana, threatening it with potential military intervention even when mired in a conflict against Iran, while also boosting economic sanctions designed to cut off funding for the Cuban government.
An oil blockade that the U.S. imposed on Cuba after the American military raid that ousted Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro, whose country provided Cuba with subsidized oil, has plunged the already economically crippled island into full-blown crisis.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez rejected the sanctions in a post on his official X account, asserting that the United States and Rubio are pursuing the “deliberate aim of harming” the economy “to prevent the provision of basic services to the population.”
“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,” Rodríguez wrote.
The latest sanctions follow an operation at the Miami airport last weekend in which several American citizens returning from Cuba after participating in events marking Castro’s birthday were briefly detained, according to U.S. officials. Some of them had their cellphones and other personal electronic devices seized for inspection, the officials said.
U.S. authorities had been prepared to detain dozens of returning activists for secondary screening, but far fewer were found to meet the criteria for the enhanced questioning by Customs and Border Protection agents, the officials said.
New sanctions are the latest pressure tactic as Cuba’s economy falls into crisis
While Cuba has been falling deeper into crisis for around five years, the oil blockade by the Trump administration has thrown the nation into freefall.
The lack of fuel to provide Cubans with electricity has plunged the island into all-out blackouts. Access to public transport has effectively disappeared, shortages of things like medicine have worsened, work hours have been slashed to adapt to the outages, and tourism, the island’s economic lifeline, has evaporated.
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