While the Trump administration announced on Thursday a new package of sanctions against Cuba that included the designation on the SDN List of Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, the executive president of the Business Administration Group S.A. (GAESA), Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro —known as “El Cangrejo”, grandson of Raúl Castro and lieutenant colonel of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT)— was completely exempt from any punitive measures.
Exclusion draws attention because only eight Cubans are currently on the SDN List —the most stringent sanction from the Department of the Treasury, which involves asset freezes and financial blocks— and El Cangrejo is not among them, despite being the son of the late general Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja, former president of GAESA and the first Cuban individually sanctioned by Washington in 2020.
The difference becomes even more evident when comparing the Cuban case with other regimes sanctioned by the United States. Russia has over 1,500 individuals listed in the SDN due to the war in Ukraine; Venezuela exceeds one hundred. Cuba, after more than six decades of dictatorship, the Maleconazo, the Causa 1 of 1989, the death of Oswaldo Payá, the passing of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the repression against the Damas de Blanco, the events of July 11, and thousands of documented arbitrary detentions, has barely added eight names, one of which is already deceased.
Neither Raúl Castro, Miguel Díaz-Canel, nor Alejandro Castro Espín —who has been considered one of the main intelligence operators of the regime for years— are part of the SDN. The three face only migration restrictions under Section 7031(c), a measure that prohibits entry into the United States but does not freeze assets or block financial transactions.
The strongest hypothesis to explain the exclusion of El Cangrejo points to its role as an active communication channel between Washington and Raúl Castro's inner circle.
Since February 2026, advisors to Secretary of State Marco Rubio heldmeetings with Rodríguez Castro in Basseterre, the capital of Saint Kitts and Nevis, in encounters described by various sources as “surprisingly friendly” and focused on the “future” of Cuba.
On April 10, a delegation from the State Department also landed in Havana on the first official U.S. flight since 2016, and a high-ranking official had a separate meeting with El Cangrejo, according to reports confirmed by both Washington and the Cuban MINREX.
Days later, Rodríguez Castro attempted to establish a direct line with Donald Trump through a letter sent via Roberto Carlos Chamizo González, an agent from MININT with a business cover. The messenger arrived in Miami on April 18 carrying the document, although the attempt at contact was unsuccessful.
The profile of El Cangrejo within the structure of Cuban power is unique. Since 2016, he has been leading the General Directorate of Personal Security for Raúl Castro and controls access to the former leader. Although he holds no visible positions within the government, the Communist Party, or the Political Bureau, he was recently seen sitting next to members of the country's highest political body during a high-level meeting broadcasted by Canal Caribe.
Sanctioning him now would have meant closing off one of the few channels of communication open between the Trump administration and Raúl Castro's circle, at a time when Washington is publicly maintaining pressure but not ruling out the possibility of eventual negotiations.
Rubio, while announcing new measures against GAESA and other Cuban officials, assured that "more sanctions against the Cuban regime will come in days and weeks", leaving open the possibility that the exclusion of El Cangrejo is a strictly strategic decision rather than a political absolution.
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