The Trump administration announced new sanctions against Cuba on Thursday, threatening to deepen an ongoing economic crisis in the island nation. The State and Treasury departments announced they are leveling additional penalties against nine state-owned mining, metal and construction companies. The move also targets the leadership of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples.
Cuba holds significant deposits of cobalt and nickel, which are used in the production of electronics. Secretary of State Marco Rubio accused these mining companies of sustaining “the regime’s repressive apparatus through control of key economic sectors.”
“Today’s designations make clear that the Trump Administration will not tolerate the Cuban regime’s efforts to fund its repression or continue its decades-long campaign of subversive anti-American activities,” 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’être of exporting Marxism, racial resentment, and Communist violence across the world.”
Start your day with essential news from Salon.Sign up for our free morning newsletter, Crash Course.
President Donald Trump has made overthrowing Cuba’s government a priority of his second term, promising in May to “take over” the Caribbean nation, while designating it a state sponsor of terrorism and imposing an oil blockade since January 2026. This has triggered a humanitarian crisis marked by rolling blackouts, the collapse of tourism, agricultural shortages and worsened medical care. Many Cuban children and other vulnerable citizens have died in the process, according to the United Nations, also citing a doubling of infant mortality. The Cuban government has refused to resign.
The Trump administration’s sanctions have spurred a transition to renewable energy like solar panels, with the help of China, which has deepened Cuba’s dependence on the Asian nation for its energy needs. Still, the country is still struggling to meet demand thanks to its aging power grid.
Read more
about this topic
