Already a subscriber? Make sure to log into your account before viewing this content. You can access your account by hitting the “login” button on the top right corner. Still unable to see the content after signing in? Make sure your card on file is up-to-date.
The Trump administration has slapped Cuba with another round of sanctions amid an effort to tighten the screws on the island’s government as its economic and humanitarian crisis spirals.
Some shit you should know before you dig in: To keep it blunt, the United States has been squeezing the shit out of Cuba over the last year. After US forces arrested Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in January, the White House imposed an oil blockade on Havana, cutting off Cuba’s primary fuel supplier, and Mexico halted its own oil shipments under pressure from the US. The result has been catastrophic for the island. Cuba’s power grid collapsed twice last week alone, trash is piling up in the streets, and residents in Havana report going a week or more without running water, internet, or cell service. Trump says this is all being done until Cuba “makes a deal” with him, with some reports indicating that he is seeking total regime change in Cuba over China and Russia’s military infrastructure on the island. Back in May, Trump signed an executive order intensifying sanctions on entities linked to repression in Cuba or to strategic sectors of its economy, which has really begun to take its toll.
What’s going on now: The State Department announced ten new designations Monday, targeting what it called “interlocking pillars” of the regime: “state-owned entities that funnel revenue to the regime and paramilitary forces, armed civilian groups, and surveillance organizations that repress the Cuban people.”
The economic targets include the Ministry of Tourism, one of the government’s biggest revenue generators outside GAESA, the military conglomerate with its hands on roughly 40% of Cuba’s economy; GECOMEX, which runs the foreign trade ministry’s imports and exports, including Alimport, the government’s main agency for bringing in food; GEMAR, a state group that handles maritime shipping and port operations under the Ministry of Transportation; fuel importers Coreydan and Enetec; and Grupo Caudal, a state insurance and financial services company.
The GEMAR designation has a backstory: GAESA reportedly transferred its assets in the company managing the Mariel container terminal to a GEMAR-linked firm, Coral Marítima, to dodge existing sanctions, according to Cuban outlet 14ymedio.
The sanctions are expected to hammer what’s left of Cuba’s tourism industry, historically one of its main sources of foreign currency. The earlier GAESA crackdown already drove foreign hotel chains to pull their brands from dozens of Cuban hotels, international arrivals are down more than 55% from last year, and one economist estimates tourism revenue could fall over 60% this year.
Cuba is furious. Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla called the sanctions “an act of collective punishment” and “a systematic violation of the human rights of an entire people,” noting during a UN General Assembly debate that US embargoes caused $8 billion in damage between March 2025 and February 2026 on top of the fuel blockade’s “extreme impact.”
UN Ambassador Mike Waltz shot back that Cuba’s regime is “a national security threat,” accused Russia and China of “collecting information around our military bases in Cuba,” and told the island’s leaders: “Change your ways and turn the lights back on for your people.”
