“Perversion”: Cuba’s president condemns US sanctions

Trump wants to change Cuba

“Perversion”: Cuba’s president condemns US sanctions

Tensions between the USA and Cuba continue to escalate. Now Cuba’s head of state is also on a US sanctions list. President Trump wants to force changes on the Caribbean island.

The US has imposed sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, his family members and various authorities. US President Donald Trump is thus further increasing the pressure on the socialist government of Cuba. Díaz-Canel condemned the sanctions and spoke of a sign of “aggressiveness and perversion” by the US government. Cuba will “resist the imperialist campaign,” he wrote on Friday night on Platform X. The sanctions are aimed at harming the Cuban people.

Trump has recently repeatedly brought up a possible “takeover” of the economically struggling Caribbean state. He indicated several times that after the war against Iran it would be Cuba’s turn. He wants to force economic and political change on the island with numerous new sanctions and a blockade of oil deliveries.

According to the US Treasury Department, Díaz-Canel has been placed on a sanctions list, which will freeze any assets in the US and prohibit US citizens and companies from having business relationships with listed individuals or institutions. International business is also likely to become significantly more difficult because many companies shy away from the risk of coming into conflict with US sanctions.

The head of state’s wife, Lis Cuesta Peraza, and his stepson Manuel Anido Cuesta were also sanctioned. Also affected by the measures are a son of 95-year-old former President Raúl Castro, Alejandro Castro, and a grandson, Raúl Alejandro Castro. The former president is a powerful figure in the socialist Caribbean state, even if he now works more behind the scenes.

In addition, the Cuban Ministry of Defense, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) and other organizations were sanctioned. According to government critics, the CDR, which exists in almost every residential area, acts as a tool for monitoring dissidents.

“Cuba has been the world capital of radical left-wing terrorism for decades,” wrote US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on the X platform. They are now targeting the network that has enabled and financed Cuba’s subversive operations in other countries. “The Trump administration will no longer tolerate radical Marxist regimes in our hemisphere,” Rubio wrote.

Relations between Washington and Havana have been tense for decades. Tensions have recently increased again under Trump.

Cuban President Díaz-Canel has been in charge of government in Havana since 2018. During his term in office, Cuba fell into one of the worst economic crises since the victory of the revolution in 1959. The island’s population suffers from constant power outages and massive supply problems.

Raúl Castro and his brother Fidel, who died in 2016, were the leaders of the revolution that overthrew the government of dictator Fulgencio Batista and established a socialist state model in Cuba. Most recently, the US government published a lawsuit against Raúl Castro. He is accused of involvement in the shooting down of two planes belonging to a Cuban exile organization by Cuba’s air force in 1996, which killed four people. Raúl Castro was defense minister at the time.