U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday broadening U.S. sanctions against the Cuban government, two White House officials told Reuters, as he seeks to put more pressure on Havana after ousting Venezuela’s leader.
The new sanctions target people, entities and affiliates that support the Cuban government’s security apparatus or are complicit in corruption or serious human rights violations, as well as agents, officials or supporters of the government, the officials said.
It was not immediately clear who exactly had been hit with sanctions 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, defence and related materiel, metals and mining, financial services, or security sector of the Cuban economy, or any other sector of the Cuban economy.”
The order authorizes secondary sanctions for conducting or facilitating transactions with those targeted under the order, the officials said.
Cuba’s foreign minister, Bruno Rodríguez, said the country rejected the new measures, which were announced as it held its traditional May Day celebrations. Rodríguez said the “unilateral coercive measures” violate the United Nations Charter and aim to impose “collective punishment against the Cuban people.”
“The U.S. has no right whatsoever to impose measures against Cuba or against third countries or entities,” Rodriguez said on social media. “They will not intimidate us.”
More pressure on Havana
Jeremy Paner, a former sanctions investigator at the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control, said the move was the most significant one for non-American companies since the U.S. embargo against Cuba began decades ago.
“Oil and gas, mining companies, and banks that have carefully segregated their Cuba operations from 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 latest broadside by the Trump administration against Cuba, which the president has repeatedly declared is near a state of collapse.
Under Trump, U.S. forces have launched strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs off Venezuela and gone into Caracas to seize President Nicolás Maduro. Trump has said, without providing specifics, that “Cuba is next.”
The officials said Trump’s order contained an implicit warning to Cuba, accusing the Havana government of aligning itself with Iran and militant groups like Hezbollah.
“Cuba provides a permissive environment for hostile foreign intelligence, military, and terrorist operations less than 100 miles from the American homeland,” one official said.
The U.S. has long demanded Cuba open its state-run economy, pay reparations for properties expropriated by the government of former leader Fidel Castro and hold “free and fair” elections. Cuba has said its form of socialist government is not up for negotiation.
The U.S. heaped additional sanctions and pressure on the island early this year, when it halted Venezuelan oil exports to Cuba after ousting Maduro on Jan. 3. Trump later threatened to impose punishing tariffs on any other country that sent crude to Cuba, prompting Mexico, another top supplier, to stop shipments to the island.
The fuel shortage in Cuba has contributed to major blackouts across the country and prompted many foreign airlines to suspend flights to the island.