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New Cuba sanctions
The United States tightened sanctions on Cuba on Thursday, blacklisting three officials tied to the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) and nine state entities in the metals, mining and construction sectors.
“blacklisting three officials tied to a state-run organization”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused ICAP of sponsoring what he called "a vast subversive network" in the United States under the cover of educational and cultural exchanges.
Reuters said the sanctions targeted the leadership of ICAP and designated entities including the Ministry of Construction of Cuba for supporting the island nation's government.
The same Reuters report said Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez shot back in a post on X, accusing Washington of deliberately trying to damage Cuba's economy and block the government from providing basic services.
Rubio’s accusations
In a statement obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its official release, Rubio said the institute is responsible for sponsoring “a vast subversive network in the United States aimed at identifying, cultivating, and radicalizing” Americans.
Rubio also 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,” as the Trump administration broadened enforcement of laws barring Americans from dealings with government-owned or -affiliated businesses.
The Miami Herald reported that Rubio warned, “anyone supporting, sponsoring, or providing services to these sanctioned actors is at risk of being sanctioned themselves.”
The Miami Herald added that Rubio said the Cuban regime had spent decades using front groups to infiltrate, corrupt, and radicalize Americans, and that he was sanctioning the leadership of ICAP along with nine entities that sustain and fund the regime’s repressive apparatus.
Humanitarian and economic risk
Cuba’s foreign minister rejected the sanctions, writing on X that the United States and Rubio were pursuing the "deliberate aim of harming" the economy "to prevent the provision of basic services to the population".
“the "deliberate aim of harming" the economy "to prevent the provision of basic services to the population"”
Reuters said the measures would hinder shipments of food, medicines and medical devices, much of them bought by Cuban private small businesses, and it said the targeting of ICAP officials was part of Rubio's "failed obsession" with Cuba.
Al Jazeera reported that the sanctions are part of a “maximum pressure” campaign designed to topple the island’s government, following a de facto fuel blockade that began in January and threats against countries exporting fuel to Cuba.
Al Jazeera also quoted UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Turk warning that “These sanctions must be lifted immediately,” and said UN experts had warned the fuel blockade amounts to an illegal form of “energy starvation.”
