The United States has announced a new round of economic sanctions against Cuba, intensifying its campaign to pressure the island's already fragile economy. The US State Department said on Thursday it was sanctioning several Cuban companies and 31-year-old Fidel Ernesto Castro, grandson of former leader Raul Castro.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a social media post: "Cuba's Communist regime elites preside over a failed state where ordinary Cubans go hungry." Since January, President Donald Trump has pursued an aggressive strategy to weaken Cuba's government, allegedly aiming to spur regime change. This includes escalating sanctions and a de facto fuel blockade, building on a decades-long US embargo dating back to the Cold War.
Rubio argued that further actions were necessary to penalize Cuba's leadership for decades of mismanagement and repression. He also accused Cuba of seeking to "export subversive Marxist ideology to the United States and other states in the Western Hemisphere," echoing Trump's assertions that the island poses a national security threat.
In response to the heightened pressure, Cuba has taken steps to address criticism. In June, it passed its most significant free-market reforms in decades, introducing 176 new measures. It has also conducted prisoner releases as a "humanitarian and sovereign gesture." On Thursday, further reforms were announced, with 34 pages of legal changes designed to loosen regulation and state control in industries like tourism. Private companies will now be able to establish tour and travel agencies independent of the Cuban government, and they will no longer be required to contract employees through state agencies. Some domestic investors will also find it easier to open foreign bank accounts.
However, these steps have done little to appease the Trump administration. Since the start of the year, the US has repeatedly threatened Cuba with military intervention, and its sanction campaign has continued. Critics warn that the sanctions, combined with the ongoing energy blockade, have pushed the country's power grid and healthcare systems to the brink of collapse.
Volker Turk, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, stated in June that such restrictions were "directly harming Cubans" and called for their end. "Children are dying because doctors lack access to essential medical supplies and medicines," Turk said. "This is unacceptable."
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused the US of fabricating threats as a pretext for pressuring the country, in an interview published in the state-run newspaper Gramma on Thursday. "The truth is that Cuba does not threaten US national security or the US economy, nor does it wish to do so," he said. "The accusation that Cuba allegedly sponsors terrorism actually reveals the US government's lack of seriousness."
In addition to targeting the Castro family, Thursday's sanctions cover two companies in Cuba's nickel mining industry, two companies in the energy sector, including an oil import company, and Banco Exterior de Cuba, a state-owned bank.
Source: www.aljazeera.com