Because of the human rights situation: Further US sanctions against Cuba

Because of the tough crackdown on protesters by the Cuban authorities, US President Biden has now imposed further sanctions. Washington froze several accounts of Cuban government officials and announced that it would increase the pressure.

The US government imposed new sanctions on Cuba after the mass protests. The incumbent Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Álvaro López Miera, and a department of the Cuban Interior Ministry that are promoting the crackdown on the protests are affected, the White House said. López Miera played “an integral role in suppressing the ongoing protests in Cuba,” according to the Treasury Department’s Bureau of Foreign Assets Control.

Increased pressure from the USA

Due to the freezing of the assets of the Cuban Defense Minister and the funds of the Special Unit National Special Brigade (SNB), US citizens and companies are no longer able to do business with López Miera or the unit concerned, the US Treasury Department said.

US President Joe Biden condemned “the mass arrests and show trials” aimed at “those who dare to speak their mind”. He announced that he would further increase pressure on the government to release “unjustifiably detained political prisoners”, restore access to the Internet and guarantee Cubans their basic rights.

“Right to Freedom of Expression”

“The Cuban people have the same right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly as all people,” said Biden. The United States is on the side of the “brave Cubans”. This is just the beginning – the United States continues to punish those responsible for the oppression of the Cuban people.

The sanctions are based on an ordinance that targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuses and corruption around the world and include, for example, property freezes. The US government reiterated that it is still examining whether restrictions on sending money to the island are possible under certain conditions.

Brutal behavior by the authorities

Most recently, thousands took to the streets spontaneously in numerous Cuban cities for freedom and against oppression and the economy of scarcity. There had been no such protests in the Caribbean country for decades. Cuba’s economy is suffering heavily from the slump in tourism in the pandemic as well as from US sanctions. There is a lack of electricity, food and medicine.

The Cuban authorities cracked down on the demonstrators, according to activists. More than a hundred people were arrested. A 36-year-old man died in a demonstration on the outskirts of Havana.