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The Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced this Thursday a new round of sanctions against Cuban military elites, coordinated between the Department of State and the Department of the Treasury, as part of the maximum pressure campaign of the Trump administration against the Havana regime.
The measures designated 12 current and former officials of the regime, seven military and security entities, and three vessels, under Executive Order 14404 signed by Trump on May 1, 2026.
Rubio stated that these sanctions "are part of the comprehensive campaign by the Trump administration to address the urgent threats to national security posed by the communist regime of Cuba and to hold the regime and those who provide it with material or financial support accountable."
Among those sanctioned are Lieutenant General Álvaro López Miera, First Deputy Minister of MINFAR and Chief of the General Staff of the FAR; Army Corps General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, Director of GAESA; and General Leopoldo Cintra Frías, former Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
The Army Corps General Joaquín Quinta González, Deputy Minister of MININT and head of the Defense Committees of the Revolution, and Colonel Leonardo Ramón Andollo Peña, head of the Intelligence Directorate of MININT, were also appointed.
Among the sanctioned entities are GAESA and the Gaviota Group, which controls over 70 hotels and marinas, as well as MAR Azul S.A. and Unión Cuba Nickel S.A.
Rubio described GAESA as "the heart of the kleptocratic communist system in Cuba", a conglomerate controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces that generates over 1 billion dollars annually.
The spokesperson for the State Department, Matthew Miller, stated that "the Cuban military regime has long used its economic empire to sustain repression at home and interfere abroad, including supporting the narco-regime of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela."
The three sanctioned vessels —Bahía del Sur, Partido, and América— are used by MAR Azul for illicit transfers of Venezuelan oil. According to the State Department, ships linked to the MINFAR have facilitated more than 200 illicit shipments of crude oil to Venezuela since 2022.
The sanctions also extended to Moa Nickel S.A., a joint venture with the Canadian company Sherritt International, which suspended all its operations in Cuba this Thursday, depriving the regime of between 10% and 15% of its electricity generation capacity.
The announcement came just days after Rubio was photographed in front of a map of Cuba at the SOUTHCOM headquarters in Doral, Florida, during the 2026 Chiefs of Mission Conference. The Secretary of State explained the image, noting that Cuba "is within SOUTHCOM, it is the closest point to the U.S."
The State Department also began to deploy personnel to Southern Command in anticipation of possible hostilities, although Washington has neither ruled out nor confirmed any other types of actions.
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed over 240 sanctions against the Cuban regime and intercepted at least seven tankers, reducing the island's energy imports by between 80% and 90%.
The official statement from the State Department warned that "new sanctions are expected in the coming days and weeks," making it clear that the campaign is far from over.
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