The U.S. (Washington Insider Magazine) – Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) imposed financial sanctions on two Cuban Ministry of Interior officials and a Cuban military unit over the government’s suppression of peaceful protests in July.
The protests, which took place on July 11, were one of the largest demonstrations seen on the Caribbean island in decades. Cubans assembled to protest harsh economic conditions including a lack of food, resources, and medical supplies amid a harsh spike in COVID-19 cases.
Critical of both the Cuban government and the long-standing U.S. economic embargo, the protests were met with repression from Cuban security forces and widespread arrests. In Washington, U.S. President Joe Biden expressed support for the Cuban people, but made no indication that the embargo or any policy would change.
The Aug. 13 sanctions were directed at Cuban Ministry of the Interior (MININT) officials Romarico Sotomayor Garcia and Pedro Martinez Fernandez, and the Tropas de Prevencion (TDP) of the Cuban Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR).
Sotomayor Garcia is the chief of the Political Directorate of MININT and Martinez Fernandez is the chief of the Political Directorate of the Policia National Revolucionaria (PNR). Both organizations are accused of deploying forces that violently attacked and arbitrarily detained protestors. OFAC cites one incident in which the TDP, a unit of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), was involved in a violent engagement with a protester.
The third round of sanctions since the start of the protests are imposed under the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act, which allows the U.S. to sanction foreign individuals or entities found to violate international human rights law.
“Today’s action shines a spotlight on additional perpetrators responsible for suppressing the Cuban people’s calls for freedom and respect for human rights,” said Director of the Office of Foreign Assets Control Andrea M. Gacki.
Under the new sanctions, all property and interests in property of the sanctioned individuals in the U.S. are blocked, as are related transactions with U.S. persons. As part of pre-existing sanctions under the Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR), any person subject to U.S. jurisdiction is prohibited from engaging in transactions involving property that Cuba or a Cuban national have an interest in, and the property and interests in property of all Cuban nationals are blocked. The CACR regulations continue to apply for the identified individuals in addition to the new, specified sanctions.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez criticized the sanctions on Twitter as part of “double standards” from Washington.
“I reject the U.S. opportunistic measures against Cuba’s Ministry of Interior officers and Armed Forces Prevention Troops,” he said. “Such measures reflect double standards of a government used to manipulation and lies to maintain the blockade against #Cuba.”
