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Manuel Marrero Cruz, Prime Minister of Cuba and the second most powerful man in the regime, is not listed in the new sanctions list published by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of the Treasury last Wednesday, an absence that has raised questions about his potential role as a communication channel between Havana and Washington.
The list did include President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, his wife Lis Cuesta Peraza, the head of intelligence Alejandro Castro Espín —alias "El Tuerto" and son of Raúl Castro—, his son Raúl Alejandro Castro Calís, and Manuel Anido Cuesta, a resident of Madrid and connected to Lis Cuesta.
At the institutional level, the U.S. sanctioned the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR), the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), the travel agency AMISTUR CUBA SA, and the mining company MINERA LA VICTORIA SA.
Marrero Cruz's exclusion is striking: as the highest-ranking official after Díaz-Canel, he was left out of a list that included the head of state, the first lady, the main intelligence officer, and the most important military and social control institutions of the regime.
The pattern recalls that of Delcy Rodríguez, the Vice President of Venezuela, who for years remained unaffected by U.S. sanctions despite her central role in Nicolás Maduro's government, which fueled speculation about her role as a liaison between Caracas and Washington.
The question that arises now is whether Marrero Cruz could be playing a similar role for the Cuban regime.
The Prime Minister himself reacted on Wednesday through his account on the social media platform X, but he did so by speaking in the third person about those sanctioned, never mentioning at any point that he himself was left off the list.
"The infamous inclusion of President @DiazCanelB, members of his family, organizations, and Cuban businesses in a spurious sanctions list by the #US government is part of the dangerous escalation of aggressions against our country aimed at intensifying a conflict scenario," Marrero wrote.
This reaction fits within a sustained pattern: since May 2026, Marrero has been the regime's most active voice against U.S. sanctions, accusing Washington of wanting to "suffocate" Cuba and attributing the economic and energy crisis to the U.S. "blockade."
Wednesday's designations represent the third wave of sanctions by the Trump administration against Cuba in 2026 and are the most symbolically impactful, as they target the head of state and his family circle directly.
The first round included GAESA and Moa Nickel S.A., while the second round, on May 18, designated eleven individuals and three entities associated with the Cuban security apparatus, including Mayra Arevich Marín, Vicente de la O Levy, and Roberto Morales Ojeda.
On May 8, Marrero stated that the sanctions "will not be lasting" and that Cuba could "return to normalcy" gradually, a statement that today takes on a different shade in light of its absence from the SDN list.
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