The State Department penalizes five entities and eight senior Cuban officials, including the Minister of the Armed Forces, Álvaro López Miera
14ymedio, Madrid, August 7, 2026 / Two weeks later, following the last wave, the United States has once again announced sanctions against five state entities and eight senior Cuban officials, including the Minister of the Armed Forces, Álvaro López Miera. Those affected are accused of facilitating military cooperation with adversaries of Washington and the acquisition of weaponry destined for the island’s Army.
“Today, the Trump Administration is taking new measures to protect our national security by imposing sanctions on entities and individuals that facilitate Havana’s military relations and arms shipments to the Cuban regime,” said Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a statement this Thursday.
These new sanctions are another turn of the screw in the US government’s pressure to force economic and political change on the island, and are directed against the company Tecnoimport, the commercial company Duna S.A., the Military Industry Union (UIM), and the military-industrial company Yuri Gagarin. Also included on this list is the Cuban Export-Import Company for Specialized Services, Articles and Technical Products (Tecnotex), a subsidiary of the military-business conglomerate Gaesa, previously sanctioned and a primary US target.
Among the officials are, in addition to the Minister of the Cuban Armed Forces, the Chief of the General Staff, Roberto Legrá Sotolongo, the head of Foreign Relations for that ministry, José Antonio Remón Rodríguez, and its economic director, Oscar Enrique Biosca Gallego. Also included are the Cuban military attachés in Russia, Mónica Milián Gómez, and in China, Waldo Pérez Cortés, as well as the directors general of the UIM, Roberto Jesús Viciana Mousset, and of Tecnoimport, Heriberto Sánchez Alleyne.
Also included are the Cuban military attachés in Russia, Mónica Milián Gómez, and in China, Waldo Pérez Cortés, as well as the directors general of the UIM, Roberto Jesús Viciana Mousset, and of Tecnoimport, Heriberto Sánchez Alleyne
Rubio insisted that “the Cuban communist regime is a state sponsor of terrorism that uses its military and intelligence apparatus to spy on the United States,” in addition to “serving as a platform” for adversaries of Washington “such as Russia, China, and Iran to carry out operations against the country.”
The designation comes in the same week that several US media outlets have reported an increase in CIA operations on the island, presumably aimed at updating their information on the capabilities of the Cuban Army, as well as creating friction within the leadership to force a revolt of pragmatists against hardliners.
The Secretary of State added that “Cuba’s military and intelligence institutions are also the main instruments of internal repression and hubs of kleptocracy, primarily through Gaesa.”
The measure places the assets and property of the entities and individuals mentioned under US jurisdiction and prohibits transactions between US persons or institutions and them. Minister López Miera had already been sanctioned since 2021 – for the repression of July 11 – under the Magnitsky Act, which allows Washington to freeze financial assets and ban travel for those who violate human rights in any country in the world. Now, the sanctions fall under Trump’s order establishing the secondary route, also affecting those who facilitate transactions with those sanctioned.
Washington’s siege against the island’s political and economic leadership has increased to unprecedented levels to directly strike even the family circle of the regime’s leaders. Among the most prominent names to be added to this Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) List of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) are Miguel Díaz-Canel, his wife, Lis Cuesta Pedraza, and his stepson, Manuel Anido Cuesta.
Also included are most of the visible – and not so visible – figures of the Castro clan, beginning with former president Raúl himself, and continuing with all his children, Mariela, Alejandro, Déborah, and Nilsa Castro Espín, as well as his grandson Raúl Alejandro Castro Calis, specifically designated, in contrast to the exceptional situation of Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, El Cangrejo, who is spared despite being a visible figure – or, precisely, because of it, since he is an interlocutor with Washington -. The rest of the grandchildren simply inherit their parents’ visa restrictions.
In addition to individuals, the battery of sanctions focuses on the Gaesa military conglomerate and any other entity serving as a front for it. Also targeted are several ministries, especially the Ministry of the Interior and the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, and other support bodies, such as the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) and the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP).
In Havana, which has already accumulated many “black Thursdays,” they did not even bother to react this time
In Havana, which has already accumulated many “black Thursdays,” they did not even bother to react this time. Although the activity of its senior officials was significant on social media yesterday, there were no statements on the matter, and they focused instead on highlighting the condemnation of the previous US sanctions issued by several UN rapporteurs.
The rapporteurs – independent experts appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council for specific issues – stated that the measures adopted by the United States are “an attempt to alter the constitutional order of a sovereign state through threats and coercion” and urged the Security Council and the General Assembly to “urgently address these threats as a matter of international peace and security.”
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez thanked the experts for their statement, as did his deputy, Carlos Fernández de Cossío, but they remain silent on the extension of the sanctions. Which will probably not be the last.
Translated by GH
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