Cuba's government lashed out at Washington after the Trump administration imposed a sweeping new round of sanctions on President Miguel Díaz-Canel, his wife, his stepson, relatives of Raúl Castro and five key Cuban entities, escalating a pressure campaign that is now reaching not only the island's formal leadership but also family networks around the ruling elite.
Díaz Canel himself took to social media to criticize Trump and described the sanctions as his "latest imperial offensive."
U.S. President Donald Trump is making new threatening statements against Cuba, while the Treasury Department has added new names of Cuban leaders, organizations and companies to an illegitimate sanctions list.
These measures are aimed at reinforcing the embargo against Cuba and escalating the climate of conflict between Cuba and the United States.
This political blindness adds to the coercive measures imposed against our country in recent weeks, which are designed to harm the Cuban people.
The aggressiveness and malice of the U.S. government will collide with our determination to confront even the worst scenarios and resist this latest imperial offensive.
El presidente de EE.UU hace nuevas declaraciones amenazadoras contra #Cuba; y el Departamento del Tesoro incorporó nuevos nombres de dirigentes, organizaciones y empresas cubanas a una lista ilegítima de sanciones.
— Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez (@DiazCanelB) June 4, 2026
Están dirigidas a reforzar las medidas de #bloqueo y el…
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez condemned the measures as "despicable" and accused the United States of acting with "imperial arrogance," while Díaz-Canel said the sanctions were part of a broader U.S. effort to tighten the embargo and escalate the conflict between Havana and Washington.
La vil inclusión del Presidente @DiazCanelB, parte de su familia, además de instituciones, organizaciones de la sociedad civil y empresas cubanas en una lista ilegítima y unilateral del gobierno de #EEUU, es la última muestra del plan intervencionista estadounidense de… pic.twitter.com/YsxogVp1Xu
— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) June 4, 2026
The reaction came after the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control added five individuals and five entities to its Specially Designated Nationals list on June 4 under Executive Order 14404, the sanctions authority signed by President Donald Trump in May as part of his renewed hardline Cuba policy.
The individuals sanctioned were Díaz-Canel; his wife, Lis Cuesta Peraza; her son and Díaz-Canel's stepson, Manuel Anido Cuesta; Alejandro Castro Espín, the son of Raúl Castro; and Raul Alejandro Castro Calis, Alejandro Castro Espín's son.
The entities added were Amistur Cuba S.A.; the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, known as the CDR; the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, known as ICAP; Minera La Victoria S.A.; and Cuba's Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, known as MINFAR.
The sanctions freeze any assets the designated individuals or entities may have under U.S. jurisdiction and generally bar Americans and U.S. companies from doing business with them.
The inclusion of Manuel Anido Cuesta adds a striking personal and international dimension to the sanctions. Anido, who is not a formal government official, has lived in Madrid and became known outside Cuba after he was romantically linked to actress Ana de Armas. Reports in Miami said U.S. officials and sources have viewed him as an informal envoy for his stepfather, giving his designation a significance beyond family ties.
The Castro family names also carry political weight. Alejandro Castro Espín, a former intelligence figure known as "El Tuerto," has long been considered one of the most influential members of Raúl Castro's inner circle. His son, Raul Alejandro Castro Calis, was also sanctioned.
The June 4 OFAC list, however, did not include Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, another grandson of Raúl Castro known as "El Cangrejo." That omission is notable because Raúl Guillermo had been discussed in recent reporting as a possible channel or messenger in sensitive contacts involving Washington and Havana. His absence suggests the administration may still be separating pressure targets from potential backchannel figures, even as it broadens sanctions against the Castro family orbit.
The Cuban reaction framed the move as an attempt to force political change. Díaz-Canel accused Trump of making new threatening statements against Cuba and said the measures were designed to reinforce the blockade and increase confrontation. Rodríguez said Washington's policy was aimed at punishing the Cuban state while worsening hardship for ordinary Cubans.
Trump, asked about Cuba as the sanctions were announced, said he wanted the island to become a "nicely run country," a phrase that Cuban officials and critics of the administration are likely to read as confirmation that Washington's goal goes beyond human rights accountability and into regime-change pressure.
The sanctions are the latest in a fast-moving series of measures since Trump returned to office. In January 2025, Secretary of State Marco Rubio restored the Cuba Restricted List and targeted entities tied to the Cuban military and government-linked business networks. In July 2025, Washington sanctioned Díaz-Canel and other senior officials over alleged human rights abuses connected to the repression of the July 2021 protests. In May 2026, the administration sanctioned 11 more Cuban officials and entities, while Rubio warned that additional measures were coming.
The pressure has also expanded beyond individual officials. Trump's May executive order opened the door to secondary sanctions against foreign companies and banks that do business in sensitive Cuban sectors, including energy, defense and mining. That authority is now being used to target institutions such as MINFAR and Minera La Victoria, underscoring the administration's focus on the military-controlled networks that dominate parts of Cuba's economy.
The latest sanctions also follow a separate escalation involving Raúl Castro himself. U.S. prosecutors recently accused the former Cuban leader in connection with the 1996 shootdown of two Brothers to the Rescue aircraft, an extraordinary step that Havana denounced as legally baseless and politically motivated.
