The United States Department of the Treasury has imposed sanctions on Cuba's Ministry of Tourism and two state-owned enterprises: Grupo Empresarial de Transporte Maritimo Portuario (GEMAR) and Grupo Empresarial del Comercio Exterior (GECOMEX). The move further strains relations between Washington and Havana.

The agency announced that companies and financial institutions doing business with these entities have until August 12 to wind down existing contracts without facing penalties.

The sanctions follow an executive order signed in May, which authorizes the freezing of US-based assets of individuals or organizations supporting the Cuban government or economy. The order also increases pressure on banks that work with Cuban entities.

In a Fox Business interview on Sunday, US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz called the Cuban regime “a national security threat.” Waltz also accused Russia and China of “collecting information around our military bases in Cuba.”

The new sanctions are the latest in a series of pressures on Cuba. The US oil blockade has led to widespread electricity blackouts. Last Friday, over 10 million people experienced the second nationwide outage of the week and the fourth of the year.

The White House imposed the blockade after the US abducted Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in January. Venezuela was Cuba's primary fuel supplier. Mexico, another supplier, also halted oil shipments following pressure from Washington.

Last week, during a UN General Assembly debate, Waltz blamed Cuba's leaders for the outages, saying, “Change your ways and turn the lights back on for your people.”

Cuba's Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla condemned the sanctions as “an act of collective punishment” and “a systematic violation of the human rights of an entire people.” He noted that US embargoes between March 2025 and February 2026 alone caused $8 billion in damage, in addition to the “extreme impact” of the fuel blockade.

Source: www.aljazeera.com