Latest news with #CubanRegime
Al Jazeera
4 days ago
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
US sanctions Cuban president, ‘regime-controlled' luxury hotels
The US State Department has imposed sanctions on senior Cuban officials, including President Miguel Diaz-Canel, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced as he marked the fourth anniversary of a brutal crackdown on historic antigovernment protests. In a post on X, Rubio said the State Department would be 'restricting visas for Cuban regime figureheads', including President Diaz-Canel, Defence Minister Alvaro Lopez Miera, Interior Minister Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, and their 'cronies' for their 'role in the Cuban regime's brutality toward the Cuban people'. Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, also announced that the State Department has added the Torre K hotel to its restricted list of entities in order to 'prevent US dollars from funding the Cuban regime's repression'. The Cuban government has promoted the luxury high-rise Torre K in central Havana as a symbol of modernisation. But the government has faced criticism for its large investment in luxury hotels amid a severe economic crisis in the nominally socialist one-party state. 'While the Cuban people suffer shortages of food, water, medicine, and electricity, the regime lavishes money on its insiders,' Rubio said. Ten other 'regime-linked properties' were also added to the State Department's List of Prohibited Accommodations, it said in a statement. The statement said the sanctions were being enacted in 'solidarity with the Cuban people and the island's political prisoners', citing the Cuban government's brutal crackdown on the July 2021 demonstrations – the largest since the Cuban revolution in the 1950s. The police crackdown resulted in one death and dozens of wounded protesters. 'Four years ago, thousands of Cubans peacefully took to the streets to demand a future free from tyranny. The Cuban regime responded with violence and repression, unjustly detaining thousands, including over 700 who are still imprisoned and subjected to torture or abuse,' the State Department said. Rubio also accused Cuba of torturing pro-democracy activist Jose Daniel Ferrer, whose bail was revoked as he was taken into custody alongside fellow dissident Felix Navarro in April. 'The United States demands immediate proof of life and the release of all political prisoners,' Rubio said. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez slammed the latest measures as part of a 'ruthless economic war' being waged by the administration of US President Donald Trump. 'The USA is capable of imposing migratory sanctions against revolutionary leaders and maintaining a prolonged and ruthless economic war against Cuba, but it lacks the ability to break the will of these people or their leaders,' he said on X. In January, then-US President Joe Biden had removed Cuba from the blacklist of countries sponsoring terrorism. But Trump returned the country to the blacklist immediately after returning to the White House as he resumed his 'maximum pressure' campaign against Cuba that typified his foreign policy during his first term.
Yahoo
4 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
US sanctions Cuban president four years after historic protests
The United States on Friday announced for the first time sanctions against Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel for his role "in the Cuban regime's brutality toward the Cuban people." The US State Department was "restricting visas" for the president and other high-ranking government officials, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an X post on the fourth anniversary of historic anti-government protests in Cuba. Other officials sanctioned included Defense Minister Alvaro Lopez Miera and Interior Minister Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez slammed the latest measures on X, saying that US President Donald Trump's administration cannot "bend the will of its people or its leaders." The State Department also added the "Torre K," a 42-story hotel in Havana, to its restricted list of entities "to prevent U.S. dollars from funding the Cuban regime's repression." The establishment, recently inaugurated in a central area of the Cuban capital, sparked criticism of the government's huge investment in new hotels at a time when tourism is declining. "While the Cuban people suffer shortages of food, water, medicine, and electricity, the regime lavishes money on its insiders," Rubio said. Rubio also took to X to accuse Cuba of torturing dissident leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, four years after the government crushed massive protests. "The United States demands immediate proof of life and the release of all political prisoners," Rubio said. Hundreds of people were arrested in the July 2021 demonstrations, the largest since the Cuban revolution in the 1950s. They resulted in one death and dozens of wounded. Ferrer, leader of the dissident group Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), was among 553 prisoners released in January after former US president Joe Biden agreed to remove the island from the blacklist of countries sponsoring terrorism. But at the end of April, his parole was revoked, prompting criticism from Washington, which has put Cuba back on the blacklist after Trump returned to power. erl/dg/aks/bjt
Reuters
03-06-2025
- Business
- Reuters
US announces visa restrictions for central American government officials
WASHINGTON, June 3 (Reuters) - U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Tuesday announced visa restrictions for several unnamed Central American government officials he said were connected to Cuban medical mission programs that include elements of forced labor and the exploitation of Cuban workers. Rubio did not name the officials nor the countries they are from. "These steps promote accountability for those who support and perpetuate these exploitative practices," he said in a statement. "The Cuban labor export program abuses the participants, enriches the corrupt Cuban regime, and deprives everyday Cubans of essential medical care that they desperately need in their homeland." Cuba's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Havana has for decades rejected such accusations. Rubio in February expanded a visa restriction policy to target Cuban officials believed to be tied to a labor program that sends Cuban workers overseas, particularly healthcare workers. Cuba's health service generates major export earnings by sending doctors and health workers around the world. Since its 1959 leftist revolution, Cuba has dispatched an "army of white coats" to disaster sites and disease outbreaks around the world in the name of solidarity. In the last decade, they have fought cholera in Haiti and Ebola in West Africa. But Cuba has also exported doctors on more routine missions in exchange for cash or goods in recent decades, an increasingly critical source of hard currency in a nation suffering a deep economic crisis. The United States and Cuba have had a strained relationship since Fidel Castro took over in the 1959 revolution, and a U.S. trade embargo has been in place for decades. Rubio, a former U.S. senator and the son of immigrants who came to Florida from Cuba in the 1950s, has long opposed more normal relations with Havana, dating back to the administration of Democratic President Barack Obama. He has signaled a tougher stance on the communist-run island, reversing a last-minute effort by the Biden administration to loosen sanctions on long-time foe Cuba and complicating money transfers to the island.
