US continues to squeeze Cuban economy with new round of sanctions

Cuba announces new pro‑market reforms amid threats of a military attack from US President Donald Trump’s administration.

The United States has launched a new series of economic sanctions against Cuba, marking another phase of restrictive measures aimed at curtailing the island’s already fragile economy.

The State Department announced on Thursday that it is imposing sanctions on several Cuban entities, including the 31‑year‑old grandson of former leader Raúl Castro, while the 95‑year‑old former revolutionary remains under federal scrutiny.

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“Cuba’s Communist regime elites preside over a failed state where ordinary Cubans go hungry,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio declared in a social‑media post on Thursday.

Since the beginning of the heightened pressure campaign in January, President Donald Trump has pursued an accelerated strategy to weaken Cuba’s government, employing both sanctions and a de facto fuel blockade alongside the long‑standing US embargo.

Rubio argued that additional measures were warranted to penalize Cuban leadership for decades of mismanagement and repression, accusing the island of attempting to export “subversive Marxist ideology” across the Americas.

Meanwhile, Cuba has taken modest steps to mitigate international criticism. In June, it enacted its most expansive free‑market reforms to date, passing 176 new measures, and released inmates as a sovereign humanitarian gesture.

Thursday’s announcement added further legislative changes – 34 pages of legal amendments designed to loosen restrictions on tourism‑related activities.

Under the new regulations, private firms may now establish tour and travel agencies independently of the state and are no longer required to hire staff through governmental intermediaries. Domestic investors are also spurred to open foreign bank accounts under relaxed rules.

Despite these reforms, the pressure has yielded limited relief for the Castro regime, which continues to frame the sanctions as tools of geopolitical dominance rather than mechanisms for economic recovery.

The administration has reiterated its warning of military intervention should the situation deteriorate, maintaining that such coercion will coerce compliance.

Human rights observer Volker Turk, United Nations Special Representative for Human Rights, warned last month that the sanctions, combined with the energy blockade, have critically compromised Cuba’s power grid and healthcare system, leading children to suffer from medicine shortages.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez denounced the allegations, stating that Cuba poses no genuine threat to US security and that accusations of terrorist sponsorship reveal the White House’s disregard for credibility.

Thursday’s targeted penalties now extend beyond the Castro family, encompassing two firms in the nickel mining sector, two entities within Cuba’s faltering energy industry—including an oil importer—and Banco Exterior de Cuba, a state‑owned financial institution.

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