Trump expands US sanctions on Cuban government and affiliates

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday broadening US sanctions against the Cuban government, two White House officials told Reuters, as he seeks to put more pressure on Havana after ousting Venezuela's leader.

The fresh sanctions target people, entities and affiliates that support the Cuban government's security apparatus or are complicit in corruption or serious human rights violations, as well as agents, officials or supporters of the government, the officials said.

It was not immediately clear who exactly had been hit with sanctions under the order, which was first reported by Reuters.

But a copy of the order released by the White House said the sanctions could apply to "any foreign person" operating in the "energy, defence and related materiel, metals and mining, financial services, or security sector of the Cuban economy, or any other sector of the Cuban economy."

The order authorises secondary sanctions for conducting or facilitating transactions with those targeted under the order, the officials said.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel said the new "coercive" measures reinforce the US's "brutal, genocidal" blockade against the island.

"The blockade and its reinforcement cause so much harm because of the intimidating and arrogant behaviour of the world's greatest military power," Diaz-Canel wrote on social media.

Cuba's foreign minister, Bruno Rodriguez, said the sanctions measures, which were announced as the island held its traditional May Day celebrations, aim to impose "collective punishment on the Cuban people" and that Cubans would not be intimidated.

Ratcheting up pressure on Cuban government

Jeremy Paner, a former sanctions investigator at the US Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, said the move was the most significant one for non-American companies since the US embargo against Cuba began decades ago.

"Oil and gas, mining companies, and banks that have carefully segregated their Cuba operations from the United States are no longer protected," said Paner, who is now a partner at Hughes Hubbard & Reed, a law firm.

The new sanctions are the latest broadside by the Trump administration against Cuba, which the president has repeatedly declared is near a state of collapse.

Under Trump, US forces have launched strikes on boats allegedly carrying drugs off Venezuela and gone into Caracas to seize President Nicolas Maduro. Trump has said, without providing specifics, that "Cuba is next."

The officials said Trump's order contained an implicit warning to Cuba, accusing the Havana government of aligning itself with Iran and groups like Hezbollah.

"Cuba provides a permissive environment for hostile foreign intelligence, military, and terrorist operations less than 100 miles from the American homeland," one official said.

The US has long demanded Cuba open its state-run economy, pay reparations for properties expropriated by the government of former leader Fidel Castro and hold "free and fair" elections. Cuba has said its form of socialist government is not up for negotiation.

The US heaped additional sanctions and pressure on the island early this year, when it halted Venezuelan oil exports to Cuba after ousting Maduro on January 3. Trump later threatened to slap punishing tariffs on any other country that sent crude to Cuba, prompting Mexico, another top supplier, to stop shipments to the island.

The fuel shortage in Cuba has contributed to major national-level blackouts and prompted many foreign airlines to suspend flights to the island.