Overview
- An executive order signed Friday authorizes sanctions on any foreign person operating in core parts of Cuba’s economy, including energy, defense, mining, financial services and security.
- The directive enables secondary sanctions on foreign banks and companies that facilitate significant transactions for targeted actors, which can include asset freezes or limits on access to U.S. banking.
- U.S. officials framed Cuba as an unusual and extraordinary threat tied to Iran and Hezbollah, a justification written into the order’s national security findings.
- Specific names of newly designated people or entities had not been publicly released, leaving global firms to assess exposure to extraterritorial penalties.
- Cuba denounced the measures as collective punishment during May Day rallies in Havana, while President Trump later told a Florida audience the U.S. would be “taking over” Cuba and floated positioning an aircraft carrier offshore, intensifying tensions after earlier U.S. curbs on oil deepened fuel shortages and blackouts on the island.