Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday announced U.S. sanctions on 11 top members of Cuba’s communist regime and three government organizations responsible for the brutal repression of the Cuban people.
The new sanctions target the Cuban Interior Ministry, the National Revolutionary Police, and the Directorate of Intelligence. The list of eleven sanctioned individuals includes Cuban ministers, deputy ministers, military officials, and members of the Cuban Communist Party — all involved in the repression and suffering of the Cuban people. The targeted individuals and institutions are also involved in the exploitation of Cuba for foreign intelligence, military, and terror operations.
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The State Department explained that the sanctions, which come days after the United States sanctioned the Cuban military-run conglomerate GAESA, are part of President Donald Trump’s campaign to address the pressing national security threats posed by Cuba’s communist regime and to hold it and those who support it accountable.
Rubio stressed that the new sanctions restrict the Castro regime’s ability to persecute Cubans and noted that additional sanctions can be expected in the coming days and weeks.
“For more than 60 years, the Cuban regime has prioritized its Communist ideology and personal wealth over the well-being of its own citizens while allowing for the exploitation of Cuba for foreign intelligence, military, and terror operations,” the State Department said in a statement. “The United States will continue to take action to counter the Cuban regime, those furthering its goals, and those abroad enabling the elites to profit while the Cuban people suffer.”
Some notable individuals on the list of eleven sanctioned Castro regime members include Interior Minister Rosabel Gamon Verde; the head of the National Assembly Juan Esteban Lazo Hernández; Energy Minister Vicente de la O Levy; Chief of Staff of Military Counterintelligence Jose Miguel Gomez del Vallin; and Communications Minister Mayra Arevich Marin, among several others.
Cuban figurehead “President” Miguel Díaz-Canel responded to the new sanctions by claiming that no member of the Cuban communist regime has any assets or properties to protect under U.S. jurisdiction. Díaz-Canel affirmed that the U.S. government “knows this all too well” and attributed the sanctions to a purported “anti-Cuban rhetoric of hate” that, according to him, seeks to justify a “total economic war” against Cuba.
“That is why we will continue to denounce, in the firmest and most forceful manner, the genocidal blockade that seeks to strangle our people,” Díaz-Canel wrote.
“The executive order that persecutes and threatens third parties wishing to sell fuel to Cuba, and the one that extends the blockade extraterritorially to unprecedented levels, penalizing companies that wish to invest in Cuba or simply supply us with basic goods such as food, medicine, toiletries, or others, is immoral, illegal, and criminal,” he continued. “The collective punishment to which the Cuban people are being subjected is an act of genocide that must be condemned by international organizations, and its perpetrators must be prosecuted.”
President Donald Trump has emphatically warned that the United States will not continue to tolerate the national security threat posed by the Cuban regime, which turned Cuba into a state sponsor of terrorism.
President Trump has significantly increased his pressure on the rogue communists in the past months as U.S. representatives have reportedly been negotiating with Cuban officials. Last week, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe visited Havana and met with Cuban officials. While details of Ratcliffe’s meeting have not been publicly disclosed by the CIA, unnamed CIA officials reportedly claimed that Ratcliffe visited Cuba “to personally deliver President Donald Trump’s message that the United States is prepared to seriously engage on economic and security issues, but only if Cuba makes fundamental changes.”
Additionally, recent reports indicate that the United States is seeking to indict Cuba’s dictator, nonagenarian Raúl Castro, for his role in the 1996 killing of four American citizens who were part of the Brothers to the Rescue humanitarian group. For years, Cuban dissidents and members of the Cuban diaspora have repeatedly called for Raúl Castro to face criminal charges for the attack.
On Monday, Díaz-Canel threatened a “bloodbath of incalculable consequences” in the event that the United States finds itself in a position of having to defend itself from a Cuban military attack. The figurehead “president” issued the threats right as the website Axios, citing “classified intelligence,” reported that the Cuban regime is in possession of over 300 military drones and is considering bombing Florida.
Christian K. Caruzo is a Venezuelan writer and documents life under socialism. You can follow him on Twitter here.
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