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The shipping companies Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM, two of the largest maritime transport companies in the world, officially confirmed the suspension of all their bookings to and from Cuba "until further notice," according to Reuters this Sunday.
Both companies attributed the decision to the Executive Order 14404, signed by President Donald Trump on May 1, 2026, which authorizes secondary sanctions against non-U.S. individuals and companies operating in key sectors of the Cuban economy.
CMA CGM informed Reuters that it was suspending shipments to or from Cuba while monitoring the situation to adjust its operations according to the applicable regulations.
Hapag-Lloyd, for its part, cited "compliance risks" associated with the same executive order as the reason for the halt.
According to two sources with direct knowledge cited by Reuters, the suspension of both shipping companies could affect up to 60% of Cuba's maritime traffic by volume.
The official confirmation on Sunday expands on what major shipping companies had halted operations since last Wednesday, when both companies informed their representatives in Cuba of the implementation of a "STOP BOOKING" for all origins and destinations of their regular services.
The immediate trigger was the sanctions package announced on May 7 by Secretary of State Marco Rubio under Executive Order 14404, which designated GAESA —the Business Administration Group S.A., a conglomerate controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces— as a blocked entity.
The sanctions freeze all GAESA assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibit any transactions with individuals or companies from that country.
The OFAC granted foreign companies and financial institutions a deadline until June 5 of 2026 to close all their operations with GAESA and its subsidiaries, under the threat of secondary sanctions.
The structural problem for shipping companies is that GAESA controls approximately 40% or more of the Cuban economy, including ports, maritime terminals, and the Mariel Special Development Zone through its subsidiary AUSA, making it practically impossible to operate in Cuba without some contractual link to the conglomerate.
The State Department described GAESA as "the core of Cuba's kleptocratic communist system" and accused the conglomerate of managing revenues that "likely triple the Cuban state budget," in addition to controlling up to 20 billion dollars in illicit assets abroad.
The maritime paralysis is part of a series of company withdrawals triggered by the sanctions. The Canadian mining company Sherritt International suspended all its direct operations in Cuba on May 7, citing that the executive order makes it "materially impossible" to maintain normal operations, at a time when the regime owed it 277 million dollars.
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed more than 240 sanctions against the Cuban regime and intercepted at least seven oil tankers, reducing the island's energy imports by between 80% and 90%.
Blackouts now affect more than 55% of the territory for up to 25 hours a day, and the suspension of maritime transport by two of the largest shipping companies in the world further exacerbates the import capacity of an island that relies almost exclusively on maritime trade for its basic supplies.
Rubio warned on May 7 that "new sanctions are expected in the coming days and weeks," a warning that carries greater weight given the deadline of June 5 set by OFAC for all foreign companies to sever ties with GAESA.
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