US Ramps Up Cuba Sanctions             08/21 06:21

   

   WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Donald Trump's administration is increasing 
pressure on Cuba by imposing more economic penalties on industries in the 
heavily sanctioned socialist country and broadening enforcement of laws that 
bar Americans who visit the island from dealings with government-owned or 
-affiliated businesses.

   The Treasury and State departments announced Thursday that they are leveling 
new penalties against nine state-owned mining, metal and construction companies 
along with the leadership of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the 
Peoples, or ICAP.

   Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the institute is responsible for 
sponsoring "a vast subversive network in the United States aimed at 
identifying, cultivating, and radicalizing" Americans.

   "Just days ago, the regime attempted to use Communist kingpin and despot 
Fidel Castro's 100th birthday to reinvigorate this subversive network, ferrying 
a new brigade of international sympathizers to Havana to network with regime 
officials," Rubio said in a statement.

   "The Trump Administration will not stand by while a hostile foreign power 
seeks to exploit our freedoms -- none of which are afforded to its people -- by 
misleading and corrupting American citizens with lies, spy tradecraft, and 
other malfeasance as part of the regime's raison d'tre of exporting Marxism, 
racial resentment, and Communist violence across the world," Rubio said.

   Trump's Republican administration has steadily ratcheted up pressure on 
Havana, threatening it with potential military intervention even when mired in 
a conflict against Iran, while also boosting economic sanctions designed to cut 
off funding for the Cuban government. An oil blockade that the U.S. imposed on 
Cuba after the American military raid that ousted Venezuelan leader Nicols 
Maduro, whose country provided Cuba with subsidized oil, has plunged the 
already economically crippled island into full-blown crisis.

   Cuba accuses the US of trying to hurt the country's economy

   Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodrguez rejected the sanctions in a post on 
his official X account, asserting that the United States and Rubio are pursuing 
the "deliberate aim of harming" the economy "to prevent the provision of basic 
services to the population."

   "In his failed obsession with Cuba, he is now targeting executives and 
officials from ICAP -- an institution that, for over six decades, has promoted 
friendship, international solidarity, justice, and peace -- the exact opposite 
of what the Secretary of State has always championed in his corrupt policy," 
Rodrguez wrote.

   The latest sanctions follow an operation at the Miami airport last weekend 
in which several American citizens returning from Cuba after participating in 
events marking Castro's birthday were briefly detained, according to U.S. 
officials. Some of them had their cellphones and other personal electronic 
devices seized for inspection, the officials said.

   U.S. authorities had been prepared to detain dozens of returning activists 
for secondary screening, but far fewer were found to meet the criteria for the 
enhanced questioning by Customs and Border Protection agents, the officials 
said.

   The officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because details of 
the operation have not been made public, said those detained were eventually 
released and allowed to enter the U.S.

   The officials said anyone detained and released could still face prosecution 
if it is found they violated U.S. sanctions, which prohibit all transactions 
with Cuban government-owned entities, including restaurants, hotels and shops. 
The status of seized cellphones, laptops and tablets, however, was unclear.

   New sanctions are the latest pressure tactic as Cuba's economy falls into 
crisis

   The new sanctions on the leadership of ICAP target the group's president, 
Fernando Gonzlez Llort, who had been among five Cuban intelligence officers 
arrested in the U.S. in 1998 but later released in 2014. They also target its 
first vice president, Noem Ramona Rabaza Fernndez, and its North America 
director, Leima Martnez Freire.

   The metals, mining and construction sector sanctions target a nickel 
production company, two firms that specialize in the import of heavy industrial 
products, a mineral resources company, the Cuban Ministry of Construction, a 
company that provides Cuban workers to foreign entities on the island and two 
enterprises that import vehicles, automotive parts and construction materials.

   The Trump administration also has stepped up a campaign that portrays Cuba 
as a grave national security threat to the U.S. In a report released last 
month, the State Department accused the Cuban government of sponsoring or 
otherwise supporting left-wing and anti-American activism in the United States 
for the past six decades.

   While Cuba has been falling deeper into crisis for around five years, the 
oil blockade by the Trump administration has thrown the nation into freefall.

   The lack of fuel to provide Cubans with electricity has plunged the island 
into all-out blackouts. Access to public transport has effectively disappeared, 
shortages of things like medicine have worsened, work hours have been slashed 
to adapt to the outages, and tourism, the island's economic lifeline, has 
evaporated.