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Without departing from the growing line of hostility towards Cuba, the U.S. government announced new sanctions against Cuban officials and a prevention unit of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR).
This time the White House targeted two Interior Ministry officials and a special unit known as the "red berets," according to Andrea M. Gacki, head of the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).
This is the third occasion in which the Biden administration has issued such provisions after the riots of more than a month ago, denounced by the Cuban government as part of the plans to try to provoke internal destabilization on the island.
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The measures announced on Friday target Romarico Vidal Sotomayor and Pedro Orlando Martínez, from the Ministry of Interior (Minint), as well as the FAR's Prevention Troops.
In his Twitter account, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez rejected "the opportunistic measures of the United States against officials of the Ministry of the Interior and the FAR's Prevention Troops" that 'reflect the double standards of a government accustomed to manipulation and lies to maintain the blockade against Cuba."
Under the Global Magnitsky Act, they were included in the list of the so-called Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), whose assets are frozen and who may not travel to the United States.
The U.S. government applied these provisions for allegedly violating human rights during the "peaceful demonstrations" of July 11, but videos disseminated on social networks showed vandalism and deliberate attacks against law enforcement officers and state property.
I reject the US opportunistic measures against Cuba's Ministry of Interior officers and Armed Forces Prevention Troops.
— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) August 13, 2021
Such measures reflect double standards of a government used to manipulation and lies to maintain the blockade against #Cuba.
Under the same pretext OFAC also sanctioned the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Army Corps General Alvaro Lopez Miera, and the National Special Brigade of the Minint.
Cuban authorities consider these restrictions irrelevant from a practical point of view, but politically they do have implications, because they are part of the aggressive escalation promoted by Washington, which has even pressured third countries to take a stand against Cuba.
Almost seven months after assuming the presidency, Biden keeps in force the 243 coercive measures adopted during Donald Trump's term that reinforce the unilateral siege that for six decades has been trying to suffocate the Cuban people.
Although the Democrat promised a change in policy toward the island nation during his presidential campaign, many of the voters of Cuban origin residing in the U.S., who voted for him under that commitment, say they feel betrayed by observing that far from a rapprochement he shows himself to be even harsher than Trump.
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