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The United States Department of State announced new sanctions on Wednesday targeting Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, members of his family and relatives of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro as the Trump administration ramps up pressure on Cuba’s communist government.
According to the announcement, the sanctions also apply to five entities linked to the Cuban government and military.
“The Cuban regime continues to demonstrate that it prioritizes the exportation of radical left-wing violence through its malign influence networks and the enrichment of the regime over the well-being of the Cuban people,” the State Department’s announcement read.
“These sanctions are designed to hold international actors supporting the Cuban regime accountable,” it continued.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio described Cuba as a longstanding center of leftist extremism and accused the government in Cuba of supporting radical movements internationally.
“For decades, Cuba has been the world capital for radical left-wing terrorism,” Rubio wrote in a post on X. “The regime in Havana has recruited, trained and backed violent Marxist and third-worldist movements across our hemisphere and beyond.”
Rubio said the sanctions were aimed at disrupting networks tied to Cuba’s government and military operations.
“Today, we are targeting the network that enables and funds Cuba’s subversive and radical operations,” he said.
The secretary of state also warned that foreign financial institutions and companies continuing to conduct business with sanctioned individuals or entities could themselves face U.S. penalties.
“Foreign banks and companies that do business with the sanctioned individuals and entities are at risk of being sanctioned themselves if they continue,” Rubio said.
Rubio framed the action as part of a broader effort by President Donald Trump to confront socialist and Marxist governments in the Western Hemisphere.
“The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate radical Marxist regimes in our hemisphere seeking to threaten U.S. national security and engage in influence operations to export their poisonous and evil ‘revolution’ to our country and around the world,” Rubio said.