Havana calls sanctions ‘collective punishment,’ vows to defend sovereignty
The State Department on Thursday designated four Cuban nickel-sector entities and three military officials leading them, alongside four Cuban military research and development entities, according to United Press International. The measures were issued under a May executive order President Donald Trump signed that gives the State Department broad authority to sanction Cuban individuals and entities.
The designations freeze any U.S.-linked assets of those named and generally bar U.S. persons from doing business with them. Thursday’s action is the 11th round of punitive measures the Trump administration has announced against Cuba since the May order.
In a statement, Rubio said the Trump administration “will not stand by as Cuba’s elite enrich themselves through resource extraction and hoard resources for Cuba’s repressive security apparatus while the Cuban people go without.”
Rubio added that “President Trump remains committed to a Cuba government by its people, not by a military class that treats the island’s future as its own private inheritance.”
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused Rubio of “lashing out” at Cuba as part of the Trump administration’s policy “of maximum economic strangulation and collective punishment” against the Cuban people, according to UPI.
“He will fail in his attempt to break us,” Rodriguez said on X. “We will never renounce our sovereignty and independence, won through nearly 70 years of Revolution.”
The May executive order followed Trump’s declaration of a national emergency over Cuba in late January. The order created broad authority for the State Department to sanction a wide swath of Cuban individuals and entities. The Trump administration has tightened economic pressure on Havana across successive sanctions rounds since the order.