The US State Department on Thursday announced sanctions against three individuals and nine Cuban companies and entities in the escalating harassment and maximum pressure campaign by the Donald Trump administration against the island.
Those affected by these new measures from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the Treasury Department are associated with the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP), previously sanctioned by the current administration.
Now the sanctions extend to ICAP President Fernando González, the organization’s First Vice President Noemà Rabaza, and its Director for North America, Leima MartÃnez.
Among the entities are Acinox Comercial, Geominsal, Metalcuba, and the Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara Nickel Company, as well as the Ministry of Construction and the Agency for Contracting Commercial Representations SA.
Also included in this round of sanctions are Coratur SA, Transimport, and Consumimport, three companies belonging to the Foreign Trade Business Group (Gecomex), which was penalized by Washington.
According to a fact sheet released here, these designations are based on the State Department’s slanderous July 20 report titled “Cuba: The Capital of 21st-Century Communism.”
The text emphasized that “all parties sanctioned today by the State Department have been designated pursuant to Executive Order (EO) 14404.”
As part of its hostile policy toward Cuba, the United States announced sanctions on August 6 against five state entities and eight officials on the island.
The United States maintains a policy of maximum pressure on the Caribbean nation in its attempt to achieve regime change, for which it has brutally intensified the blockade that has been in place for more than six decades.
The extraterritoriality of this unilateral embargo — condemned more than 30 times in the UN General Assembly — targets third countries, companies and individuals that maintain legitimate ties with Cuba.
[ SOURCE: PRENSA LATINA ]
