The United States has imposed a fresh round of economic sanctions on Cuba, designating nine state-owned mining, metal, and construction companies, along with officials linked to a Cuban international outreach organisation. The measures, announced by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, target entities including Cuba's Ministry of Construction and the mining group GEOMINSAL, which extracts and trades the island's significant deposits of cobalt and nickel. Three leaders of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) — a state body founded in 1960 by Fidel Castro to foster ties with international organisations — were also sanctioned.

Rubio framed the designations as a national security matter, accusing the mining and construction companies of sustaining what he called the Cuban government's "repressive apparatus," and alleging that ICAP operates a "subversive network" of international sympathisers. He specifically accused the group of organising a delegation to Havana to coincide with the late Castro's 100th birthday. Among those targeted is ICAP president Fernando González Llort, a former member of the Cuban Five, a spy ring whose members were released in a prisoner exchange during the Obama-era diplomatic thaw with Havana.

The latest measures form part of a broader "maximum pressure" campaign by the Trump administration, which has stated its goal is to bring about a change of government in Cuba — a socialist state roughly 145 kilometres from Florida that has been governed under one-party Communist rule since the mid-20th century. Since January, Washington has imposed what amounts to a de facto fuel blockade by cutting off Venezuela's oil shipments to the island and threatening tariffs on any country that fills the gap. Only one tanker, from Russia, has docked in Cuba since the blockade began. Senior Cuban figures across the energy, finance, defence, and tourism sectors are already subject to US sanctions.

The humanitarian consequences have drawn international concern. The fuel shortage has crippled Cuba's ageing electricity infrastructure, forcing hospitals onto emergency generators and triggering lengthy, frequent power cuts that have prompted rare public protests. UN Human Rights Commissioner Volker Türk has warned of accelerating infant mortality rates and declining survival rates among children with cancer, saying the sanctions are "directly harming Cubans, especially the most vulnerable." A group of UN experts earlier described the fuel blockade as an illegal form of "energy starvation."

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez condemned the new measures on social media, accusing Rubio of seeking to "punish" Cuban companies and prevent the government from guaranteeing basic services to a population already in a "critical situation." The Trump administration, for its part, argues that Cuba represents a genuine national security threat to the United States, and President Trump has publicly suggested that Cuba would be a future target for regime change once other foreign policy priorities are resolved.