The US has condemned the president of Cuba, some of the leaders in suppressing the leaders – National
The United States has imposed sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, along with his wife and three other people, according to a request filed on Thursday with the US Treasury Department. It is the latest move by the Trump administration to clamp down on the island’s leadership.
Among these sanctions is Alejandro Castro Espín, the only son of former President Raúl Castro and Vilma Espín. He served as an adviser to Cuba’s National Defense and Security Commission and was present when Raúl Castro greeted then-US President Barack Obama in Havana in a historic meeting in March 2016. Castro Espín’s son, Raúl Alejandro Castro Calis, was also included.
The sanctions come after US President Donald Trump signed a letter to increase sanctions on the island and has been threatening military action since ousting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January and ordering a power cut that halted oil shipments to Cuba. That led to massive power outages, food shortages and economic collapse across the island.
These threats took on new weight after the United States announced criminal charges against Raúl Castro. The new sanctions freeze people’s assets and bank accounts in the US, although it is not clear how much their money has to do with the US financial system.
Asked Thursday if his sanctions were intended to hasten the fall of Cuba, Trump said, “We just want them to be a well-run country.”
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“The country is starving and has no energy, no oil, no money, no nothing. It has a beautiful piece of land. You can have beautiful resorts,” Trump told reporters at an event unrelated to the Oval Office.
Asked if Cuba is about to fall, he said, “It’s like falling,” adding that “we will deal with that as soon as we finish” the military operation in Iran.
“I like to do one thing at a time,” Trump said.
Trump has mixed talks about regime change in Cuba after promising to take over the country if its leadership does not open its economy to American investment and expel America’s enemies.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who has long opposed Cuba’s socialist leadership, said Trump’s preference is to reach an agreement with the island’s leadership but said he doubts the US can reach a diplomatic resolution with the current government.
Those “appointed today direct or support the administration and its efforts to consolidate its reform movement in the United States and around the world,” Rubio said in a statement.
Rubio defended the Trump administration’s decision to impose escalating sanctions on Havana, the largest of which is against Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA, a business group run by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.
Díaz-Canel was hand-picked in 2018 to replace Raúl Castro. He was the first in decades to lead Cuba without the name Castro.
Under him, the island plunged into its worst economic and energy crisis in recent history, a situation exacerbated by increased sanctions imposed by the Trump administration.
Díaz-Canel had promised to modernize Cuba’s social and economic model, but the island is still riddled with problems.
Before becoming president, Díaz-Canel served as Minister of Higher Education and first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba.
His wife, Lis Cuesta Peraza, also appeared on the list of punishments. She does not have the title of wife of the president, a title that was abolished in Cuba during the revolution, but she does so, finding other spouses such as Queen Letizia of Spain and accompanying her husband on official trips. He worked as an official in the Ministry of Culture.
His son Miguel Anido Cuesta, Díaz-Canel’s son, is also facing sanctions.
Cuban authorities did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The new sanctions are increasing pressure on the Cuban government, but this is far from the first time the US has imposed sanctions against leaders of countries or governments and their relatives.
The United States targeted former Sudanese President Omar Bashir and former Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe in the early 2000s and, more recently, imposed sanctions on Maduro and his wife.
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