The United States added eight Cuban state-owned enterprises, the Ministry of Construction, and three officials from the Cuban Institute for Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) to the list of Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons (SDN) on Thursday, as part of a broader update that included measures related to Cuba, terrorism, drug trafficking, and Iran.
The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), part of the Department of the Treasury, announced new designations related to Cuba under Executive Order 14404, as part of an update that also included sanctions for terrorism and drug trafficking.
The eight Cuban state-owned enterprises added are Acinox Comercial, the Agency for Hiring Commercial Representations S.A. (Acorec), the Tourism Supply Corporation S.A. (Coratur), Transimport, Consumimport, the Nickel Company Commander Ernesto Che Guevara, the Import Export and Metal Marketing Company (Metalcuba), and the Mining and Salt Business Group (Geominsal).
Three officials of the Cuban regime were also appointed: the former spy Fernando González Llort, president of the ICAP; Noemí Rabaza Fernández, first vice president of that organization, and Leima Martínez Freire, director for the North America area.
The ICAP itself had already been included in the list of sanctioned entities by the United States in June, but this time the OFAC updated its records to include other entities associated with the institution, among them the Casa de la Amistad, the Casa Memorial Salvador Allende, and the Campamento Internacional Julio Antonio Mella in Artemisa.
The OFAC also added the Ministry of Construction of Cuba (MICONS) to the list.
In a clarification regarding the new sanctions against MICONS, OFAC stated that it does not intend to sanction foreign individuals or financial institutions for the necessary operations to close their business with the ministry, or with entities in which it directly or indirectly holds at least 50% ownership, as long as that process is completed before September 19, 2026.
The OFAC warned, however, that returning assets to a sanctioned party or transferring them to another jurisdiction for potential use could expose foreign individuals to sanctions.
It also clarified that this margin for closing transactions does not authorize prohibited transactions to individuals or entities subject to the jurisdiction of the United States.
This time, the Treasury update was not limited to Cuba; the OFAC also added individuals and entities under programs related to terrorism and drug trafficking, including targets linked to Hizballah and drug trafficking networks in Ecuador.
These designations are based on legal grounds different from those applied to Cuban entities and citizens.
The new measures arrive just two weeks after the round of sanctions announced on August 6, when the United States included five Cuban entities and eight officials linked to the acquisition of foreign weapons for the Armed Forces.
Previously, on July 23, Washington had imposed sanctions against nine entities and two officials related, among other sectors, to energy, GAESA, and medical missions.
In June, the U.S. added to the list of Specially Designated Nationals the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, his wife Lis Cuesta Peraza, Alejandro Castro Espín —son of Raúl Castro— and the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR).
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed more than 250 new sanctions against the Cuban regime, marking the most intense offensive in decades aimed at dismantling the sources of funding and the pillars of political control of the dictatorship.
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