The list includes the Ministry of the Interior, the General Directorate of Intelligence, the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), and several Army commanders.
14ymedio, Madrid, May 18, 2026 / As announced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the list of those sanctioned in Cuba by the Donald Trump administration has expanded considerably. As of Monday, according to the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department, 11 more high-ranking officials—two of them from the Ministry of the Interior—and three institutions have been added: the Ministry of the Interior itself, the General Directorate of Intelligence, and the National Revolutionary Police (PNR).
Among them are the Ministers of Energy and Mines, Vicente de la O Levy; of Communications, Mayra Arevich Marín; and of Justice, Rosabel Gamón Verde, as well as the President of the National Assembly, Esteban Lazo; the head of Military Counterintelligence of the Armed Forces, José Miguel Gómez del Vallín (from Las Tunas); and the former minister Roberto Morales Ojeda (from Cienfuegos), currently a member of the political bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC).
Also included are three other high-ranking military officers, Joaquín Quintas Solá (from Colón, Matanzas), Eugenio Armando Rabilero Aguilera and Raúl Villar Kessell, and the director and deputy director of the PNR, Oscar Alejandro Callejas Valcarce and Eddy Manuel Sierra Arias.
In the same statement today, OFAC also announced that it is extending the permit to trade Russian oil for another month, until June 17.
The US penalizes all of them 11 days after doing so with the Business Administration Group (Gaesa); its president, General Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, and the state-owned company that operates in the Holguín mines, Moa Nickel SA. At that time, in a statement, the State Department explained the designation of these “subjects” within the framework of the executive order signed by President Donald Trump on May 1 , which determined to impose sanctions “on those responsible for repression in Cuba and threats to the national security and foreign policy of the United States.”
The measure has since produced a seismic shift in foreign companies with interests in Cuba, starting with Moa Nickel’s partner, the Canadian transnational Sherritt, which on May 7 announced the suspension of its activities on the Island and the immediate repatriation of its employees, including the Cubans it has employed in Canada.
The fear of sanctions was also the reason given by the Spanish airline Plus Ultra for withdrawing from the agreement it had with Cubana de Aviación, leaving the state-owned airline without a route to Madrid.
This Sunday, the shipping companies CMA CGM and Hapag-Lloyd confirmed the same decision, which could mean a 60% loss of maritime traffic for the island, according to estimates by two experts in a Reuters report.
In the same statement today, OFAC also announced that it is extending the permit to trade Russian oil for another month, until June 17, from which any person or organization related to Cuba, as well as Iran, North Korea and the occupied territories of Ukraine, is again excluded.
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