International

US sanctions senior Cuban officials as tensions escalate

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by Tara Suter - 05/18/26 6:33 PM ET

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by Tara Suter - 05/18/26 6:33 PM ET

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The U.S. is sanctioning 11 people it claims are “Cuban regime-aligned actors,” including top officials, as tensions heat up between the two countries.

In a fact sheet released Monday, the State Department said it was “sanctioning 11 Cuban regime-aligned actors and three entities in furtherance of the Trump Administration’s comprehensive campaign to address the pressing national security threats posed by Cuba’s communist regime and hold accountable the regime and those who provide it material or financial support.”

According to the sheet, some of those who are being sanctioned include Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines Vicente de la O Levy, Cuban Minister of Communications Mayra Arevich Marín and National Assembly for People’s Power President Juan Esteban Lazo Hernández.

The Miami Herald reported that the president of the National Assembly for People’s Power, the communications minister and the energy and mines minister were also sanctioned by the Treasury Department on Monday.

The State Department fact sheet claimed that due to the sanctions, any property “and interests in property” owned by those being sanctioned on U.S. soil “are blocked and must be reported to the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).”

On Monday, Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel warned of a “bloodbath” if the U.S. attacked his country, comments that followed Axios reporting that Cuba has over 300 military drones with discussed plans to use them to hit the U.S. military base at Guantanamo Bay or Key West, Fla.

Axios cited classified intelligence displaying that Cuba’s drone buildup could strike these sites and U.S. military vessels.

“The threats of military aggression against Cuba from the world’s greatest power are well-known,” Díaz-Canel wrote on the social platform X.

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