For more than 60 years, the Cuban regime has prioritized its Communist ideology and personal wealth over the well-being of its own citizens while allowing for the exploitation of Cuba for foreign intelligence, military, and terror operations. This has to stop.
That’s why Secretary of State Marco Rubio designated 11 Cuban regime elites and three government organizations, including government officials and military figures associated with Cuba’s security apparatus, many of whom are responsible for or have been involved in repressing the Cuban people.
These sanctions advance the United States’ campaign to address the threats posed by Cuba’s communist regime and to hold accountable both the regime and those who provide it material support.
Regime-aligned actors such as those most recently designated bear responsibility for the suffering of the Cuban people, the failing Cuban economy, and the exploitation of Cuba for foreign intelligence, military, and terror operations, said Secretary Rubio in a statement. These “designations further restrict the Cuban regime’s ability to suppress the will of the Cuban people.” Additional sanctions “can be expected in the following days and weeks,” he said.
One of the entities being sanctioned, the Ministry of Interior of Cuba, or MININT, is responsible for Cuba’s internal security and controls Cuba’s police, internal security forces, intelligence agencies, and the country’s prison system.
The Policia Nacional Revolucionaria, or PNR, which is a police force under MININT accused of operating mobile prisons and violent suppression of protests has also been sanctioned.
And finally, the Directorate of Intelligence of Cuba, the primary intelligence agency of the government of Cuba under MININT, was sanctioned.
One of the eleven individuals who was sanctioned is Eddy Manuel Sierra Arias, the Chief of the General Directorate of the PNR. Another is Oscar Alejandro Callejas Vaalcarce, the Chief of the Political Directorate of MININT and the former Director of the PNR.
“What is happening in Cuba,” said Secretary Rubio in a press interview, “is unacceptable and it is a threat to the U.S. to have a failed state 90 miles from our coast.”
“Our plan for Cuba is a prosperous future. That’s what we want. It’s in our national interest to have a prosperous Cuba.”