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The Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla responded this Tuesday with a passionate post on X following the announcement of new sanctions from U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio against entities linked to the Cuban military conglomerate GAESA, calling it "dishonest and mendacious," and accusing Washington of continuing to "tighten the grip on Cuba's economy."
In his publication, Rodríguez stated that the Island has proven to be "stronger, more capable, and more effective" than Rubio expected in the face of what the chancellor referred to as "the ruthless aggression and collective punishment against the people and their living conditions."
He closed his message with a direct statement against the head of U.S. diplomacy: "What this individual is promoting from the world's greatest power is a crime," accompanied by the hashtag #CubaEstáFirme.
The sanctions that sparked the chancellor's reaction were announced by Rubio on his X account and designate five Cuban entities and one individual under Executive Order 14404, signed by President Trump on May 1, 2026.
The sanctioned entities are Almacenes Universales S.A. (AUSA), RAFIN S.A., Banco Financiero Internacional S.A. (BFI), GeoMinera S.A., and Empresa Siderúrgica José Martí (Antillana de Acero), the largest producer of crude steel in Cuba, recently modernized with the collaboration of Russian entities.
Annalie Lilliam Rueda Cardero, wife of Alejandro Castro Espín, former head of Cuban intelligence services and son of Raúl Castro, was also appointed. He had been sanctioned on June 4 along with Díaz-Canel and Lis Cuesta Peraza.
Rubio described GAESA as "the primary vector for the regime's elites to appropriate the scarce resources of the Island, diverting them towards repression, anti-American subversion, and espionage, instead of allocating them to schools, power plants, and the basic needs of the Cuban people."
The Secretary of State also warned that any person or entity providing services to those sanctioned risks being subject to secondary sanctions, and urged foreign banks and companies to immediately freeze their activities with these entities.
According to the official statement from the Department of State, these sanctions represent the fourth major wave of designations in under two months, and the stated goal is "not to punish, but to achieve a positive change in behavior."
Rodríguez's reaction this Tuesday is not an isolated incident, but rather part of a systematic verbal offensive by the chancellor against Rubio that intensifies with each new wave of sanctions.
On May 7, he described the initial designations against GAESA as "collective punishment with genocidal intent"; on June 2, he defended the military conglomerate as a structure of "proven efficiency"; and days later, he accused Rubio of "chronic lying".
This communication strategy of the regime aims to portray the sanctions as an imperial aggression against the Cuban people, diverting attention from the central role that GAESA plays in the island's economic crisis.
The military conglomerate controls approximately 40% of Cuba's GDP and 95% of the country's foreign exchange transactions, with total assets estimated at least at $17.9 billion.
Since January, the Trump administration has imposed over 240 sanctions against Cuba, including an oil blockade that has reduced fuel imports by 80% to 90%, resulting in blackouts lasting more than 24 consecutive hours across the entire Cuban territory.
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