US Imposes New Sanctions on Cuba Amid Humanitarian Crisis

Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the measures by citing an executive order issued in May, alleging that the Cuban government maintains a subversive network within the United States. Among the entities targeted are the Ministry of Construction and the mining group GEOMINSAL. The sanctions also affect leaders of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, including Fernando González Llort. Rubio stated the administration would not tolerate efforts to export what he termed communist violence or fund repression.

Cuban officials immediately rejected the justification. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez dismissed the move as a failed obsession designed to cripple the island's ability to provide essential services. Meanwhile, the Center for Economic and Policy Research labeled the sanctions an act of illegal economic aggression. Research associate Pedro Labayen Herrera warned that by restricting trade and construction, the United States is exacerbating a humanitarian crisis that United Nations experts have compared to a potential silent Gaza. This latest escalation follows a series of aggressive policy shifts, including a naval blockade and the reinstatement of Cuba to the State Sponsors of Terrorism list, despite repeated condemnations of the broader embargo by the UN General Assembly.