Cuba’s ruling elite is hoarding the island’s energy, shipping, and technology resources for its own enrichment, leaving the Cuban people to contend with blackouts, shortages, and a stagnant economy. The Marxist regime in Havana relies on a web of state-owned enterprises, joint ventures, and offshore intermediaries to keep this system running; its foreign backers supply the military equipment that helps sustain the regime’s military forces and enable its brutal repression, while propping up its persistent efforts to threaten, infiltrate and subvert the American homeland.
Today, pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order (E.O.) 14404, “Imposing Sanctions on Those Responsible for Repression in Cuba and for Threats to United States National Security and Foreign Policy,” I am designating ten targets including additional Cuban elites, a crude oil shipping network, state-owned import and technical-support entities, and China-based suppliers of the regime’s military forces. I am also identifying five associated vessels as blocked property.
Among today’s targets is GUILLERMO FAUSTINO RODRIGUEZ LOPEZ CALLEJA, who is part of an extensive web of offshore shipping companies that move Cuban crude oil shipments to and from the island. I am also designating ANY RODRIGUEZ LASTRES, daughter of the previously designated Grupo de Administración Empresarial (GAESA) President Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera.
Additionally, the Department of the Treasury issued a determination pursuant to E.O. 14404 that authorizes the imposition of economic sanctions on any foreign person operating or having operated in the electronics, manufacturing, marine, and technology sectors of the Cuban economy.
The Trump Administration will not stand by while the Cuban regime funnels the island’s resources to its military elite, while regime insiders and their family members profit from opaque offshore networks, and while Cuba continues to serve as a staging ground for a global coalition of hostile anti-American actors to threaten, spy on, and plot against the United States and its interests.
The Department’s actions are being taken pursuant to E.O. 14404, which authorizes sweeping sanctions on Cuba, including against persons who support the Cuban regime’s security apparatus and those responsible for repression in Cuba and other threats to U.S. national security. These actions also further both E.O. 14380, Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Cuba and National Security Presidential Memorandum 5, which directs the Executive Branch to improve human rights, encourage the rule of law, foster free markets and free enterprise, and promote democracy in Cuba. For more information on today’s action, see the Department of State’s Fact Sheet.
This article was originally published by Antigua News Room. Read the original article here: U.S. imposes new sanctions on Cuban elites, oil shipping network and China-based military suppliers.