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The US has imposed a new round of sanctions on Cuban officials and companies, Secretary of State Marco Rubio says.<\/b><\/p>\n
Nine state-owned mining, metal and building firms, the Ministry of Construction and officials connected to a Cuban-based international institute have been named in the latest tranche of economic sanctions.<\/p>\n
Rubio accused various figures of “ferrying a new brigade of international sympathisers to Havana to network with regime officials” to coincide with the late former leader Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday.<\/p>\n
Cuba has denounced all sanctions imposed by the Trump administration, which are part of a wider pressure campaign against the Caribbean island’s leadership.<\/p>\n
Rubio said in a statement that the figures targeted by the sanctions form “part of the regime’s raison d’\u00eatre of exporting Marxism, racial resentment and Communist violence across the world”. <\/p>\n
He continued: “Today’s designations make clear that the Trump administration will not tolerate the Cuban regime’s efforts to fund its repression or continue its decades-long campaign of subversive anti-American activities.”<\/p>\n
The leadership of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) was targeted in the latest round of US sanctions.<\/p>\n
Founded in 1960 by Castro, the ICAP has traditionally been used by the Cuban government to foster ties with like-minded organisations around the world by hosting visiting groups of activists who also promote pro-Cuban government campaigns in their own countries.<\/p>\n
Rubio, however, accuses the group of “misleading and corrupting American citizens with lies, spy tradecraft and malfeasance”.<\/p>\n
Among those to be targeted is the group’s president, Fernando Gonzalez Llort, a member of a spy ring called the Cuban Five, who were part of a prisoner exchange during the Obama-era thaw in relations with Havana.<\/p>\n
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodr\u00edguez condemned Rubio’s announcement, writing on X that he was trying to “punish” Cuban companies and further “harm” the economy.<\/p>\n
Rodr\u00edguez added it would prevent the government “from guaranteeing basic services to the population, which are already in a critical situation as a result of the blockade”.<\/p>\n