US Imposes New Cuba Sanctions on Oil Firm and Castro's Grandson
The US government imposed new sanctions on Cuba in an effort to suffocate the island's economy and exacerbate its numerous crises.
Sanctioned individuals include Fidel Ernesto Castro, grandson of ex-President Raul Castro, along with Cuba's Oil Industry Supply Import Company, referred to as Abapet. The firm is in charge of bringing in specialized machinery and replacement components essential for maintaining Cuba's deteriorating power infrastructure.
Brett Erickson, a sanctions expert and managing principal at Obsidian Risk Advisors, a consulting firm, stated that the sanctions are intended to disable Cuba's essential infrastructure and worsen its energy crisis.
"The US is making an effort to really tighten the restrictions as much as possible," he stated.
The Trump administration appears to show no genuine willingness to accept any change from Cuba aside from a regime change. Marco is not going to allow that to pass," he remarked, alluding to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Erickson expected that Cuba's administration would seek to bypass the sanctions "since they must." "They will find imaginative ways to obtain these maintenance parts," he remarked, cautioning that it would be a more expensive option, consequently increasing inflation and further damaging Cuba's economy.
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Islandwide blackouts are becoming more frequent, with daily outages in Cuba exceeding 24 hours as the deteriorating grid collapses and fuel supplies decrease since US President Donald Trump threatened in late January tariffs on any nation that sells or supplies oil to the island.
"The objective, in principle, is to inflict enough civilian distress and pain that they feel compelled to rise against and overthrow their government," Erickson stated. "It is an effort to create a humanitarian emergency." Discussions between the US and Cuba earlier this year have stopped, and sanctions have risen in recent months.
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Erickson mentioned he anticipates the US will continue to focus on increasingly smaller state firms to attempt to drive them "into a death spiral." The US has previously imposed sanctions on entities such as Cuba's government-owned oil and gas firm.
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The US State Department issued the announcement shortly after Cuban officials conducted a press conference to provide additional information on the landmark economic reforms approved in June.