Further Sanctions on Cuba’s Elites, Financial Channels, and Resource Exploitation Apparatus

The Communist Cuban regime continues to pose a deep, multifaceted threat to U.S. national security and our hemisphere’s stability. While the Cuban people suffer, the Castro family and their cronies in Cuba’s repressive Ministry of the Interior (MININT) continue to perpetuate their total control of the island’s economy, hoarding resources for the benefit of a small group of regime elites. Today, pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order (E.O.) 14404, “Imposing Sanctions on Those Responsible for Repression in Cuba and for Threats to United States National Security and Foreign Policy,” I am designating five entities and one individual whose activities prop up the regime’s financial services, metals and mining, and energy sectors, and are part of networks that advance the regime’s threats to U.S. national security.

Among those designated today are a grandson of Raúl Castro, Fidel Ernesto Castro Calis, Banco Exterior de Cuba, and four entities exploiting Cuba’s natural resources or energy reserves for the benefit of the regime.

These designations reflect President Trump’s unwavering vision for a free Cuba — one where the regime’s illicit financial networks, repressive apparatuses, and entrenched Castro-era power structures are dismantled, and where the Cuban people, not their oppressors, inherit the nation’s future.

The Department’s actions are being taken pursuant to E.O. 14404, which authorizes sweeping sanctions on Cuba, including against persons who support the Cuban regime’s security apparatus and those responsible for repression in Cuba and other threats to U.S. national security.  These actions also further both E.O. 14380, “Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Cuba” and National Security Presidential Memorandum 5, which directs the Executive Branch to improve human rights, encourage the rule of law, foster free markets and free enterprise, and promote democracy in Cuba.  For more information on today’s action, see the Department of State’s Fact Sheet.