US Sanctions More Cuban Companies and Officials

The United States has imposed a new round of sanctions against Cuban officials and state firms, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced.

Nine state‑owned mining, metal, and construction companies, the Ministry of Construction, and officials connected to a Cuban‑based international institute have been added to the sanctions list.

Rubio said the targeted figures were “ferrying a new brigade of international sympathizers to Havana to network with regime officials” during the late former leader Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday.

Cuba has denounced all sanctions imposed by the Trump administration.

Rubio described the sanctions as a posture against the regime’s “raison d’être of exporting Marxism, racial resentment, and Communist violence across the world,” and that the U.S. will not tolerate the Cuban government’s tactics of funding repression.

Members of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) were targeted; the institute is known for fostering ties with like‑minded groups worldwide, often hosting activist delegations that promote pro‑Cuban campaigns back home.

Rubio accused the ICAP of “misleading and corrupting American citizens with lies, spy tradecraft and malfeasance.” The group’s president, Fernando Gonzalez Llort—part of the Cuban 5 spy ring—was among those designated.

Cuba’s senior officials in energy, finance, and defence are already subject to U.S. sanctions, and the island’s tourism industry has collapsed, reducing a key income source for the beleaguered government.

Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez condemned the announcement on X, calling the sanctions a punishment that will harm the Cuban economy and prevent basic services for the population, which are already under severe pressure from the blockade.

Following the U.S. oil blockade earlier this year, Cuban hospitals are running on emergency generators, and frequent power cuts have triggered rare protests, a rare public dissent in the nation that usually faces severe punishment.