The Department of the Treasury of the United States identified five Cuban-flagged vessels as blocked property on Thursday as part of a new round of sanctions against the regime in Havana, aimed at dismantling the offshore shipping network that transports crude oil to and from the island.
The designated vessels are the Esperanza (IMO 9289166), the Gloria C (IMO 9540273), the Maria Cristina (IMO 9502453), the Emilia (IMO 9242209), and the Lourdes (IMO 9259692), all under the Cuban flag and associated with four shipping companies that have been simultaneously sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury.
The four designated operators are CAROIL Transport Marine Ltd. (Cyprus), TENTACOOL Commercial Inc. (Panama), Internacional Marítima S.A. (Cuba), and Petróleos Marítimos del Caribe S.A. —PETROMARCA— (Cuba).
CAROIL commercially manages the vessels Esperanza, Gloria C, and Maria Cristina; TENTACOOL is listed as the registered owner of Gloria C; Internacional Marítima S.A. is shown as the registered owner of Esperanza; and PETROMARCA operates the vessels Emilia and Lourdes.
The Gloria C is a tanker for chemical and petroleum products built in 2010; the Emilia is a liquefied gas tanker manufactured in 2002; and the Lourdes is a crude oil tanker also from 2002.
Three of the five vessels were already listed under U.S. sanctions imposed by Executive Order 13850, related to Venezuela: the Esperanza, the Maria Cristina —formerly Carlota C— and the Lourdes, previously identified as Giralt.
In the update of November 5, the OFAC added the three vessels to the designation under Executive Order 14404, related to Cuba, without removing the previous sanctions linked to Venezuela.
CAROIL was first designated in September 2019 for activities related to the Venezuelan oil sector, and its recent redesignation now reflects the continuity of its crude oil transportation operations for the Cuban regime.
In the same sanctions package, the State Department included Guillermo Faustino Rodríguez López-Calleja, associated with the maritime transport network, and Any Rodríguez Lastres, daughter of the president of GAESA.
Guillermo Faustino Rodríguez López-Calleja is the brother of the late General Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja —former head of GAESA— and the uncle of Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, known as "El Cangrejo." He is a graduate of the Naval Academy of Cuba and is reported to have lived in Athens, operating shipping companies.
Any Rodríguez Lastres is the daughter of Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, who is the president of GAESA and has already been appointed by Washington. Any had served as the commercial director of the Mariel Container Terminal S.A.
The Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused the ruling elite in Cuba of hoarding the island's resources for their own benefit. "The Marxist regime in Havana relies on a network of state-owned enterprises, joint ventures, and offshore intermediaries to keep this system running," he stated.
In his public statement, he added: "The Trump Administration will not stand by while the Cuban regime channels the island's resources to its military elite."
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