Rubio announces US sanctions on Cuban state-owned oil company

Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced sanctions against Cuba’s state-owned Union Cuba-Petroleo gas and oil company on Thursday as the Trump administration continues its pressure on the communist island nation.

TL;DR

The U.S. has sanctioned Union Cuba-Petroleo, a Cuban state-owned oil company.
Sanctions block all property and dealings between the U.S. and the company.
Executive order 14004 authorizes these sanctions to increase economic pressure on Cuba.
The Cuban government is accused of using energy rationing for repression and enriching elites.
The Trump administration aims to weaken the communist government and promote democracy in Cuba.

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Secretary Marco Rubio reposted

Department of State

🚨SECRETARY RUBIO: The Cuban people should know there’s $100 million of food and medicine available for them right now and the only reason it’s not reaching them is because of the Cuban regime. https://t.co/Noln7Sobh9

Secretary Marco Rubio

Adys Lastres Morera is the sister of the Executive President of GAESA, the Cuban military-controlled financial conglomerate that steals millions in aid for the Cuban people at the behest of the regime.

Morera was managing real estate assets and living in Florida, while also aiding Havana's communist regime, until I terminated her permanent resident status.

I am pleased to announce that today, she was arrested and is now in the custody of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

There will be nowhere on this Earth - much less in our country - where foreign nationals who threaten our national security can live lavishly.

Secretary Marco Rubio

For decades, Cuba has been the world capital for radical left-wing terrorism. The regime in Havana has recruited, trained and backed violent Marxist and third-worldist movements across our hemisphere and beyond. Today, we are targeting the network that enables and funds Cuba's subversive and radical operations.

Pursuant to sanctions authorities created by President Trump’s groundbreaking Cuba Executive Order, I am designating the following entities:

1. Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Cuba (MINFAR)

2. Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP)

3. Amistur Cuba S.A.

4. Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR)

5. Minera La Victoria S.A.

Anyone providing services to these sanctioned actors is at risk of sanctions themselves. Foreign banks and other companies that provide services to these entities should freeze those activities.

The Trump Administration will no longer tolerate radical Marxist regimes in our hemisphere seeking to threaten U.S. national security and engage in influence operations to export their poisonous and evil “revolution” to our country and around the world.

Secretary Marco Rubio

Today, I am sanctioning Cuba’s state-owned energy company, Unión Cuba-Petróleo (CUPET), under President Trump’s EO 14404. Cuba’s Communist elites have weaponized energy as a tool of social control and kleptocratic profit.

For decades, the regime has stolen and hoarded available fuel — using it for the Castros’ private jet, the security services forces used to repress the Cuban people, to keep empty tourist hotels lit up, and to bus people in for fake protests and political stunts — all while the Cuban people have suffered blackouts and waited weeks to fill their cars.

President Trump wants a new future for the Cuban people with greater economic and political freedom and opportunity. Until then, we will continue to target the Communist regime’s ability to leverage its energy trade to further its corrupt agenda and violently repress the Cuban people.

Secretary Marco Rubio

The situation in Cuba is devolving as the island’s corrupt, brutal and anti-American Communist regime continues to prioritize its own total control over the freedom, opportunity and basic wellbeing of the Cuban people.

The Cuban military-controlled conglomerate GAESA has persistently served as the main vector for regime elites to steal the island’s few resources, diverting them for repression, anti-American subversion and spying instead of schools, power plants, and basic necessities for the Cuban people. Today, I designated additional GAESA network entities associated with moving both its money and its physical assets, as well as entities responsible for exploiting Cuba’s mineral and metal reserves for ill-gotten profit.

Anyone providing services to these sanctioned actors is at risk of being sanctioned themselves. Foreign banks and other companies that provide services to these entities should freeze those activities immediately.

Secretary Marco Rubio

The Cuban Communist regime continues to exploit its people and serve as the leading sponsor of radical leftism and political violence in our hemisphere. Today, I designated nine entities and two individuals associated with the dictatorship, including four malign actors profiting from the exploitation and forced labor of the regime’s overseas medical brigades and a sanctions evasion network associated with the kleptocratic military conglomerate, GAESA.

Anyone supporting, sponsoring, or providing services to these sanctioned actors is at risk of being sanctioned themselves. Foreign banks and other companies that provide services to, or hold funds for, these entities should suspend those activities immediately.

https://t.co/azxZH4dXNI

Secretary Marco Rubio

The Cuban Communist regime is a state sponsor of terrorism that spies on America, arms violent left-wing radicals, spreads poisonous Marxist ideology, and serves as a staging ground for Russia, China & Iran just 90 miles from our shores. Today I sanctioned five Cuban entities and eight individuals associated with procuring arms for the regime. As President Trump has said: the United States will not tolerate a rogue state harboring hostile military, intelligence & terror operations on our doorstep.

https://t.co/CuEr4ft0Is

Secretary Marco Rubio

The Cuban regime has spent decades using front groups to infiltrate, corrupt, and radicalize Americans. Today, I'm sanctioning the leadership of ICAP, which is one of the primary organizations involved in these efforts—including convicted Cuban spy Fernando González Llort—and nine entities that sustain and fund the regime's repressive apparatus.

https://t.co/Dtnn1ADjCz

Secretary Marco Rubio

Communist Cuba is a corrupt failed state and a persistent threat to U.S. national security, sitting less than 100 miles from American shores. While ordinary Cubans endure blackouts, food shortages, and brutality, regime elites continue to hoard the island’s resources for themselves and Cuba’s repressive security apparatus. The United States will keep exposing and sanctioning those who sustain this system. Today, I'm sanctioning a further 11 entities and individuals involved in the development of Cuba’s military capabilities and the exploitation of its mining sector. President Trump's E.O. 14404 for propping up the Cuban regime's exploitation of the island's nickel wealth and its development of military capabilities. https://t.co/OJqjFY8eGa

Secretary Marco Rubio

For too long, Communist Cuba has been allowed to operate as an outpost for malign actors and terror groups – including the Islamic Republic of Iran, the world’s number one state sponsor of terrorism – to target the United States.

Today, I designated BICSA, a Cuban financial institution which has been providing financial services to sanctioned Iranian entities.

Let me be absolutely clear: the Trump Administration will not tolerate a rogue state hosting hostile foreign military, intelligence and terror operations less than a hundred miles from our homeland. https://t.co/MMEgob7I1V

Secretary Marco Rubio

The United States will not tolerate subversive communist networks in our hemisphere.

The Marxist Cuban regime relies on a web of state-owned enterprises, joint ventures, and offshore intermediaries to keep its systems running, and its foreign backers supply the military equipment that helps sustain the regime’s military forces and enables persistent threats to the American homeland.

Today, I'm sanctioning eight entities and two individuals associated with the regime’s financial and shipping network, state-owned import and technical-support entities, and China-based suppliers of the regime's military forces.

https://t.co/qDWCDAMtO8