According to a State Department statement, the new measures target companies and officials linked to the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces due to alleged arms imports and military cooperation with Russia and China—Washington’s historic adversaries.

“Today, the (Donald) Trump Administration is taking new measures to protect our national security by imposing sanctions on entities and individuals that facilitate Havana’s military relations and arms shipments to the Cuban regime,” said the main architect of these attacks, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in a statement.

The sanctions freeze any property or financial interests of the designated parties within US jurisdiction and prohibit US persons and companies from conducting transactions with them. Washington also warned that foreign banks and companies doing business with the sanctioned parties could face similar measures.

These new sanctions target the company Tecnoimport, the commercial firm Duna S.A., the Military Industry Union (UIM), and the Yuri Gagarin military-industrial company.

Also included in the list is the Cuban Export-Import Enterprise for Specialized Technical Services, Items, and Products (Tecnotex), a subsidiary of the Business Administration Group S.A. (Gaesa)—which had been previously sanctioned—according to the text.

Officials designated by Washington include the Cuban Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, Alvaro Lopez Miera; Chief of the General Staff Roberto Legra Sotolongo; the ministry’s head of foreign relations, Jose Antonio Remon Rodriguez; and its economic director, Oscar Enrique Biosca Gallego.

The new sanctions also target Cuba’s military attaches in Russia, Monica Milian Gomez, and China, Waldo Perez Cortes, as well as the directors general of UIM, Roberto Jesus Viciana Mousset, and Tecnoimport, Heriberto Sanchez Alleyne.

jdt/car/ga