The U.S. government intensified its pressure on Cuba on Thursday, June 4, by imposing economic sanctions on several Cuban figures, including President Miguel Díaz-Canel and members of the Castro family. He had already been under sanctions since July 2025 by U.S. diplomacy, which accused him of acts of repression against protesters in 2021.
The son and one of the grandsons of Raúl Castro, who no longer holds an official position but remains, at 95, at the heart of decisions regarding the future of the communist island, are also on the blacklist of the U.S. Treasury Department. The only son of the former leader, Alejandro Castro Espin, was a key player in the secret negotiations between Cuba and the United States that led to the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries in 2015. The wife of the Cuban president, Lis Cuesta, and her son are also sanctioned, alongside the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
These sanctions "aim to reinforce the blockade measures and the climate of conflict between Cuba and the United States," denounced the Cuban head of state on X. "The aggressiveness and perversity of the Yankee government will clash with our decision to face the worst scenarios and resist the imperial attack," added Miguel Díaz-Canel, while the U.S. president reiterated on Thursday that he soon wanted to "take care of" the communist island. The Treasury Department had recently sanctioned ministers, several generals, and the Cuban intelligence services.
When Washington sanctions individuals and organizations, any assets they may hold in the United States are frozen. American companies and citizens are prohibited from doing business with them, under threat of being sanctioned themselves.
Another grandson of Raúl Castro, Raúl Castrormo Rodriguez Castro, who according to U.S. media plays a role in the difficult ongoing negotiations between the two countries for several months, is not among the individuals subject to the restrictive measures.
"The entities and individuals designated today run or finance the regime and its efforts to mobilize its radical revolutionary movements in the United States," said U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who is of Cuban origin and a fierce opponent of the Havana government.
Marco Rubio said he is pursuing "the dismantling of the military cartel that has seized all economic power in Cuba for the benefit of a small circle of regime elites," referring to the conglomerate of companies linked to the Cuban army, sanctioned by Washington in early May. This "Enterprise Administration Group," known as GAE.SA or Gaesa, has been weakened in recent weeks by the successive withdrawal of several foreign partners from the island of 9.6 million inhabitants.
Fearing U.S. sanctions, several international hotel groups have thus disengaged from the management of nearly a hundred tourist establishments on the island, most associated with Gaesa. And payments by Visa and Mastercard had to be suspended. Relations between the United States and Cuba, under embargo since 1962, have become considerably strained since the beginning of the year.
Washington imposes a de facto oil blockade on the island, has issued waves of sanctions against companies and leaders, with Raúl Castro in a case dating back to 1996. Donald Trump believes that the island, located 150 kilometers from the coast of Florida, represents "an extraordinary threat" to U.S. national security. The U.S. president has repeatedly threatened to "take control" of it.
Asked Thursday in the Oval Office at the White House whether these sanctions aim to push for the collapse of the Cuban economy, Donald Trump said he wants "simply for it to be a well-run country that can feed its people." "The country is starving... it has no money, it has nothing. It has a beautiful piece of land. You could have fantastic tourist resorts there," continued the U.S. president. "And we will take care of it as soon as we are done. I like to do one thing at a time, and we will take care of the Islamic Republic of Iran," he added.
