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WASHINGTON, Jun 6, CMC – The Donald Trump administration has imposed additional sanctions on Cuban military instrumentalities and other actors responsible for what it described as “subversive anti-American activities.”
“Today, pursuant to President Trump’s Executive Order (E.O.) 14404 of May 1, 2026, ‘Imposing Sanctions on Those Responsible for Repression in Cuba and for Threats to United States National Security and Foreign Policy’, I am designating five Cuban entities and five individuals who sustain the regime’s malicious campaign to subvert and destabilise US national security,” said US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement on Thursday. “These sanctions target the Cuban regime’s wide-ranging and violent radical action network and the actors who implement and fund it.
“Beginning with Fidel Castro’s programme to globalise the so-called Marxist revolution, Havana has served as a forward operating base for global irregular warfare against US interests, recruiting, training, and equipping violent left-wing militants across our region – including Marxist terrorist groups in the United States – with the ultimate goal of undermining US national security,” added Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants residing in Miami.
He claimed that the entities and individuals he designated on Thursday “direct or fund the regime and its efforts to mobilise its radical revolutionary movements in the United States and around the world”.
Rubio said these “targets” include President of Cuba Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermudez, Castro family member and representative Alejandro Castro Espín, and “members of their networks who advance the regime’s threats to US national security.”
The US Secretary of State said he is also “continuing to crack down on the military cartel that has consolidated all economic power in Cuba for the benefit of a small circle of regime elites and their overseas hidden bank accounts.”
He said while he has already designated Grupo de Administración Empresarial (GAESA), “the primary holding company for the military’s strangle-hold on the economy”, he is sanctioning the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba (MINFAR).
As a result, Rubio said MINFAR’s majority holdings and subsidiaries, many of which are identified on the US Department of State’s Cuba Restricted List (CRL), are “considered blocked”.
“Anyone dealing with entities owned 50 percent or more by GAESA, MINFAR, or the previously designated Ministry of the Interior risk exposure to potential US sanctions action,” he warned.
Additionally, Rubio designated a Cuban government gold mining joint venture that, he claimed, “continues to enrich the Cuban military and elite at the expense of its people”.
He said the designees are “associated with developing, implementing, and funding the Cuban regime’s violent revolutionary network.
They comprise Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba (MINFAR), the government ministry in charge of the Cuban military; Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), “a political subdivision, agency, or instrumentality of the Government of Cuba”; Amistur Cuba SA, which is “owned, controlled, or directed by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, ICAP”; and Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), which is “owned, controlled, or directed by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Government of Cuba”.
In addition, Rubio designed Cuban Government-aligned elites and family members.
They are President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez for “being or having been a leader, official, senior executive officer, or member of the board of directors of the Government of Cuba”; Lis Cuesta Peraza for “being an adult family member of a person designated pursuant to this order”; Manuel Anido Cuesta for “being an adult family member of a person designated pursuant to this order”; Alejandro Castro Espin for “being owned, controlled, or directed by, or having acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Government of Cuba; and Raul Alejandro Castro Calis, the son Alejandro Castro Espin, for “being an adult family member of a person designated pursuant to this order”.
Rubio also said that Minera la Victoria SA, a Cuban gold mining joint venture created by Australia-based entity Antilles Gold Ltd and Cuban SOE Geominera SA, is designated for “operating in or having operated in the metals and mining sector of the Cuban economy”.
He said the State Department’s actions are being taken pursuant to Executive Order (E.O.) 14404, which authorizes sweeping sanctions on Cuba, including persons who support the “Cuban regime’s security apparatus and those responsible for repression in Cuba and threats to US national security”.
Rubio said 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 (NSPM-5), “which direct the Executive Branch to improve human rights, encourage the rule of law, foster free markets and free enterprise, and promote democracy in Cuba”.
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