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While the Trump administration announced this Thursday a new package of sanctions against Cuba that included the designation in 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 excluded from any punitive measures.
The exclusion is noteworthy because only eight Cubans are currently listed on the SDN List—the most severe sanction from the Treasury Department, which involves asset freezing and financial blocking—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 to be 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 under SDN due to the war in Ukraine; Venezuela exceeds one hundred. Cuba, after more than six decades of dictatorship, the Maleconazo, Causa 1 of 1989, the death of Oswaldo Payá, the passing of Orlando Zapata Tamayo, the repression against the Ladies in White, the events of July 11, and thousands of documented arbitrary detentions, has only eight names on its list, one of whom is already deceased.
Neither Raúl Castro, Miguel Díaz-Canel, nor Alejandro Castro Espín —considered for years one of the main intelligence operators of the regime— are part of the SDN. The three only face migration restrictions under Section 7031(c), a measure that prohibits entry into the United States but does not freeze assets or block financial operations.
The most solid 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 landed in Havana on the first official U.S. flight since 2016, and a senior official held a separate meeting with El Cangrejo, according to reports confirmed by both Washington and Cuba's MINREX.
Days later, Rodríguez Castro attempted to establish a direct line with Donald Trump through a letter sent via Roberto Carlos Chamizo González, a MININT agent with business coverage. The messenger arrived in Miami on April 18 carrying the document, although the attempt to make 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 does not hold visible positions within the government, the Communist Party, or the Political Bureau, he was recently spotted sitting alongside members of the country's highest political body during a high-level meeting broadcast by Canal Caribe.
Sanctioning him now would have meant shutting down 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 a potential negotiation.
Rubio, in announcing new measures against GAESA and other Cuban officials, stated 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 and not a political absolution.
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