US imposes new sanctions against Cuba, claiming support for Cuban people

The US Treasury Department has imposed new sanctions against two Cuban Interior Ministry officials and a military unit, claiming they were involved in the government’s crackdown on US-inspired protests last month.

The department announced Friday it was sanctioning Romarico Vidal Sotomayor Garcia and Pedro Orlando Martinez Fernandez and the Tropas de Prevencion (TDP) of the Cuban Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces.

This comes despite the fact that President Joe Biden pledged to reconsider brutal Trump-era sanctions against Havana during his 2020 election campaign.  

Reacting to the measure, Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez slammed the latest sanctions in a Twitter post, describing the sanctions as "US opportunistic measures against Cuba's Ministry of Interior officers and Armed Forces Prevention Troops.”

“Such measures reflect double standards of a government used to manipulation and lies to maintain the blockade against #Cuba," Rodriguez further said.

Late last month, Rodriguez demanded an end to the long-running “inhuman” US blockade against Havana, insisting that Washington has no reason to maintain its Cold War policies against Cuba.

Cuba decries ‘inhuman’ US blockade, demands end to Cold War policies

Cuba has called for an end to the “inhuman” US blockade against the Caribbean island nation.

Rodriguez further stressed in a Twitter post that the United States lacks reasons to enforce coercive measures of “economic suffocation” against the Cuban people amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“There is also no justification for keeping the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by Washington for almost six decades,” he added.

Blinken claims support for Cubans  

Secretary of State Antony Blinken alleged in a Friday statement that the US "supports the people of Cuba in their brave call for freedom as we identify those who oppress them and attempt to maintain a repressive system".

"We will continue to take actions to promote accountability for the Cuban government’s human rights abuses," he said. 

Such claims by the top US diplomat comes against worldwide criticism of brutal suppression of protests across the United States against police brutality and human rights abuses against African Americans and other minorities in the country.

Washington imposed sanctions against the Cuban police force and two of its leaders last month after protests in the country.

The US-sponsored protests in Cuba erupted amid the nation’s worst economic crisis, resulting from increasing American economic and political pressures against it and a record surge in coronavirus infections. Protesters took to the streets, angry over shortages of basic goods, with pockets of violent inciters promoting US-sponsored slogans against the government.

Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel blamed the unrest on Washington, which in recent years has tightened its decades-old trade embargo on the island. He said while many protesters were sincere and upset with persisting hardships, some were manipulated by US-orchestrated social media campaigns.

Cuban diplomat blasts Western media for 'huge' disinformation campaign

Cuban diplomat blasts the Western media for

The protests were triggered by the “manipulation and communication campaign financed by the US” with the objective of inciting people to take to the streets in order to bring instability to the country, Marlen Redondo, charge d’affaires of the Cuban embassy and permanent mission to the United Nations in Vienna, said in an interview with Press TV’s Richard Medhurst.

The US-led campaign has  taken advantage of “the really hard situation” Cuba is facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic and worsened by the decades-long blockade of the country, she added.

Biden has not only kept Trump’s maximum pressure campaign on Cuba, but he has also increased the sanctions, saying that this is just the beginning. Several prominent lawmakers in US Congress, specifically Republicans, have also advocated direct intervention in Cuba, even suggesting bombing strikes.

Numerous resolutions by the United Nations General Assembly have indicated that the US blockade of Cuba is against international law.

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