Trump Admin Tightens Squeeze on Cuba With Sanctions on Daz-Canel, Others

A man walks along a street as a classic car passes, with the Iberostar Selection hotel (C) and the Habana Libre Melia hotel (R) in the background, in Havana on June 2, 2026. Adalberto Roque/AFP via Getty ImagesThe Trump administration imposed sanctions Thursday on Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel, his wife, and three other key individuals in the latest escalation of pressure on the island’s communist leadership amid intensifying economic hardship.The Treasury Department’s move builds on earlier executive measures and takes aim at key figures in the regime and associated entities. It freezes any assets those individuals or groups may hold in U.S. jurisdictions and prohibits Americans from conducting business with them.Alejandro Castro Espín, son of former leader Raúl Castro, and Castro Espín’s son are also included in the sanctions. They also apply to Cuba’s defense ministry, the Institute for Friendship with the Peoples, the official travel agency Amistur Cuba, and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, according to public filings.The designations follow U.S. President Donald Trump’s signing of Executive Order 14404 in early May, which broadened sanctions to target those involved in repression or threats to U.S. national security and foreign policy. That order, as part of the International Emergency Economic Powers Act, allows secondary sanctions on foreign entities supporting the Cuban regime.Cuba has faced increasing difficulties after U.S. actions limited its oil shipments, leading to widespread blackouts, food shortages, and economic strain, fueling unrest and calls for change on the island.“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,” Trump said Thursday at an Oval Office event. “You could have beautiful resorts.”Trump was asked about whether or not the country could collapse.“It’s sort of collapsed,” he said, adding that “we’re going to handle that as soon as we’ve finished” other priorities.“I like to do one thing at a time,” he said.The president has implied a “friendly takeover” if Cuban leaders fail to pursue economic openness and distance themselves from adversaries, raising the possibility of stronger action.U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, whose family has Cuban roots, has said that the sanctions are necessary and that Cuba poses a national security threat.“Those designated today direct or fund the regime and its efforts to mobilize its radical revolutionary movements in the United States and around the world,” Rubio said in a statement.Díaz-Canel responded in Spanish on social media platform X.“This political blindness adds to the coercive measures applied in recent weeks against our country, designed to harm the Cuban people.”He accused the United States of “new threatening statements against Cuba” and promised resistance “to confront the worst-case scenarios and resist the imperial onslaught.”Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez condemned the move.“Every U.S. action aimed at creating a scenario of conflict between the two countries is destined to fail,” Rodriguez said in a translation from Spanish. “Every threat against Cuba’s independence and sovereignty will be met with even greater unity and determination from our people.”Díaz-Canel, who succeeded Raúl Castro in 2018, has presided over worsening crises. His wife, Lis Cuesta Peraza, functions in a first-lady role and faces sanctions alongside her stepson, Manuel Anido Cuesta.