U.S. sanctions Cuba's nickel reserves, military research entities

Sept. 18 (UPI) — The United States has issued additional Cuba-related sanctions, targeting the island nation’s nickel reserves as well as several of its military research entities, as the Trump administration tightens its economic vise on Havana.

President Donald Trump declared a national emergency over Cuba in late January, followed by an executive order in May creating broad powers for the State Department to sanction a wide swath of Cuban individuals and entities.

The sanctions announced by the State Department Thursday come under the May order, blacklisting four Cuban nickel-sector entities and three military officials leading them as well as four Cuban military research and development entities.

“The Trump administration will not stand by as Cuba’s elite enrich themselves through resource extraction and hoard resources for Cuba’s repressive security apparatus while the Cuban people go without,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement.

“President Trump remains committed to a Cuba government by its people, not by a military class that treats the island’s future as its own private inheritance.”

Thursday’s sanctions is the 11th round of punitive measures the Trump administration has announced against Cuba since the May executive order. The sanctions freeze any U.S.-linked assets of those designated, and generally bar U.S. persons from doing business with them.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez accused Rubio of “lashing out” at Cuba as part of the Trump administration’s policy “of maximum economic strangulation and collective punishment” against the Cuban people.

“He will fail in his attempt to break us,” Rodriguez said on X.

“We will never renounce our sovereignty and independence, won through nearly 70 years of Revolution.”