WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump on Friday signed an executive order expanding US sanctions against the Cuban government, two White House officials said. Reutersas he seeks to put more pressure on Havana after overthrowing Venezuela's leader.
The new sanctions target individuals, entities and affiliates who support the Cuban government's security apparatus or are complicit in corruption or serious human rights violations, as well as government agents, officials or supporters, the officials said.
It was not immediately clear who exactly had been targeted under the order, which was first reported by Reuters.
But a copy of the order released by the White House said the sanctions could apply to “any foreign person” operating in “the energy, defense and related materials, metals and mining, financial services or security sector of the Cuban economy, or any other sector of the Cuban economy.”
The order authorizes secondary penalties for conducting or facilitating transactions with those to whom the order applies, officials said.
Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel said the new “coercive” measures reinforce the United States' “brutal and genocidal” blockade against the island.
“The blockade and its reinforcement cause so much damage due to the intimidating and arrogant behavior of the greatest military power in the world,” Díaz-Canel wrote on social networks.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said the sanctions measures, which were announced as the island held its traditional May Day celebrations, are aimed at imposing “collective punishment on the Cuban people” and that Cubans would not be intimidated.
Pressure increases on the Cuban government
Jeremy Paner, a former sanctions investigator at the U.S. Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said the move was the most significant for non-U.S. companies since the U.S. embargo against Cuba began decades ago.
“Oil and gas companies, mining companies and banks that have carefully segregated their operations in Cuba from those in the United States are no longer protected,” said Paner, who is now a partner at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, a law firm.
The new sanctions are the Trump administration's latest salvo against Cuba, which the president has repeatedly declared is on the brink of collapse.
Under the Trump administration, US forces launched attacks on ships allegedly transporting drugs from Venezuela and headed to Caracas to capture President Nicolás Maduro. Trump has said, without giving details, that “Cuba is next.”
Officials said Trump's order contained an implicit warning to Cuba, accusing the Havana government of aligning itself with Iran and groups such as Hezbollah.
“Cuba provides a permissive environment for hostile foreign intelligence, military and terrorist operations within 100 miles of U.S. territory,” one official said.
The United States has long demanded that Cuba open its state economy, pay reparations for property expropriated by former leader Fidel Castro's government and hold “free and fair” elections. Cuba has said its socialist form of government is not subject to negotiation.
The United States piled on additional sanctions and pressure on the island earlier this year, when it halted Venezuelan oil exports to Cuba after overthrowing Maduro on Jan. 3. Trump then threatened to impose tariffs on any other country that shipped crude oil to Cuba, prompting Mexico, another major supplier, to halt shipments to the island.
Fuel shortages in Cuba have contributed to major nationwide blackouts and led many foreign airlines to suspend flights to the island.
