Trump targets Cuba with fresh sanctions efforts

The White House announced that President Donald Trump imposed new sanctions on senior Cuban officials, continuing a months-long effort by the administration to increase economic and security pressure on the island.

Trump signed an executive order imposing “new sanctions on entities, persons, or affiliates that support the Cuban regime’s security apparatus, are complicit in government corruption or serious human rights violations,” the White House said in a fact sheet on Friday. It didn’t name the targets of the sanctions, News.Az reports, citing foreign media.

Trump has repeatedly threatened action against the leftist Cuban government amid an intensifying US push to deprive the government of fuel and financing. The island, which has been under a smothering US embargo for decades, has suffered widespread blackouts in recent weeks as shipments of crude and fuel have been cut off.

Those moves have prompted speculation about a possible US military effort to overthrow Cuba’s Communist regime, especially after Trump ordered the capture of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and launched fresh airstrikes on Iran. In March, Trump said the US was talking to the island “but we’re going to do Iran before Cuba.”

Friday’s order also allows the departments of State and Treasury to impose even more economic punishment on anyone linked to those sanctioned under it.

On Wednesday, Cuba’s top diplomat accused Washington of trying to manufacture a pretext for toppling the government in Havana.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio had previously told Fox News that Cuba is a national security threat because it had “rolled out the welcome mat to adversaries” of the US. Washington has previously accused Havana of providing a toehold for Chinese and Russian forces in the hemisphere.

News.Az 

By Ulviyya Salmanli