U.S. hits Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel with sanctions, putting further pressure on Havana

The United States imposed sanctions on ​Cuban chairperson Miguel Díaz-Canel, his married woman and trio other individuals on th, in the in style(p) move by the Trump administration to pressure the island's leadership that drew immediate condemnation from Havana.

Included in the sanctions are Alejandro Castro Espín, the sole son of former president Raúl Castro and Vilma Espín. He served as an adviser to Cuba's Defence and National Security Commission and was present when Castro greeted then-U.S. President Barack Obama in Havana during a historic March 2016 meeting.

Castro Espín's son, Raúl Alejandro Castro Calis, was also listed.

The new penalties come as U.S. President Donald Trump has been threatening military action in Cuba since ousting Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro in January and then ordering an energy blockade that choked off fuel shipments to Cuba. That has led to severe blackouts, food shortages and an economic collapse across the island.

The threats took on new weight after the U.S. Announced criminal charges against Raúl Castro last month. Thursday's penalties, which follow Trump signing an executive order expanding sanctions against the island, freeze the individuals' property and bank accounts in the U.S. But it's unclear how intertwined their finances are with the U.S. Financial system.

It's "pretty unlikely" Cuba's president and others have assets in the U.S., said Richard Feinberg, former U.S. National security adviser on Latin America and professor emeritus of international political economy at the University of California, San Diego.

He said the sanctions "could be seen as preliminary to an intervention or increasing pressure on the regime to cut a deal," adding that the rhetoric of Trump and U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio "could take you in either direction."

Díaz-Canel accused Trump of making "new threatening statements against Cuba" and said "these measures are aimed at reinforcing the blockade and escalating the conflict between Cuba and the United States."

"This political blindness adds to the coercive measures applied in recent weeks against our country, designed to harm the Cuban people," he wrote on X. "The aggression and perversion of the U.S. Government will clash with our resolve to confront the worst-case scenarios and resist the imperial onslaught."

Asked Thursday if his sanctions were meant to accelerate Cuba's collapse, Trump said: "We just want them to be a nicely run country."

"The country is starving and it's got no energy, it's got no oil, it's got no money, it's got nothing. It's got a beautiful piece of land. You could have beautiful resorts," he told reporters at an unrelated event in the Oval Office.

Asked whether Cuba is close to collapsing, he said, "It's sort of collapsed," and added, "we're going to handle that as soon as we've finished" military operations in Iran.

"I like to do one thing at a time."

Trump raises spectre of 'friendly takeover' of Cuba

Trump has ratcheted up talk of regime change in Cuba after pledging to conduct a "friendly takeover" of the country if its leadership did not open its economy to American investment and kick out U.S. Adversaries.

Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants who has long taken a hard line against the country's socialist leadership, has said Trump's preference is to reach a deal with the island's leadership. But he has said he is doubtful the U.S. Can reach a diplomatic resolution with the current government.

In a statement, Rubio said the people sanctioned on Thursday "direct or fund the regime and its efforts to mobilize its radical revolutionary movements in the United States and around the world."

Rubio has defended the Trump administration's decision to slap escalating sanctions on Havana, the largest of which is against Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), a business conglomerate operated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces.

Díaz-Canel's wife, Lis Cuesta Peraza, who worked as an official in the Ministry of Culture, also appeared on the sanctions list, along with her son Miguel Anido Cuesta, Díaz-Canel's stepson.

In addition to the individuals, the sanctions also target Cuba's defence ministry; its Institute for the Friendship with the Peoples, which promotes people-to-people talks; Amistur Cuba, an arm of the institute that oversees specialized tourism on the island; and the Committees for the Defence of the Revolution.

Bruno Rodríguez, Cuba's minister of foreign affairs, said the sanctions are "the latest example of the U.S. Interventionist plan to portray Cuba as a threat to U.S. National security."

"Every U.S. Action aimed at creating a scenario of conflict between the two countries is destined to fail," he wrote on X. "Every threat against Cuba's independence and sovereignty will be met with even greater unity and determination from our people."

The new sanctions, which would also freeze any assets that come into U.S. Jurisdictions, also apply to non-American entities that might do business with those targeted.

Díaz-Canel was handpicked in 2018 to succeed Raúl Castro. He was the first person in decades not named Castro to lead Cuba.

Under him, the island plunged into its worst economic and energy crisis in recent history, a situation worsened by heightened U.S. Sanctions.

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