US sanctions Cuban president, officials on protest anniversary

By Fatma Zehra Solmaz

ISTANBUL (AA) - The US has imposed sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and other senior officials over human rights violations, also announcing visa restrictions, as the country marks the anniversary of the largest anti-government protests in decades.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced Friday on X that the State Department would be “restricting visas for Cuban regime figureheads,” naming President Diaz-Canel, Defense Minister Alvaro Lopez Miera, Interior Minister Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas, and their “cronies” due to their “role in the Cuban regime’s brutality toward the Cuban people.”

Rubio said the State Department has added Havana’s Torre K hotel to its restricted list to “prevent US dollars from funding the Cuban regime’s repression.”

The Cuban government has touted the luxury Torre K high-rise as a sign of modernization, but faced backlash for investing in upscale hotels while the country grapples with a deep economic crisis.

“The US will continue to stand for the human rights and fundamental freedoms of the people of Cuba, and make clear no illegitimate, dictatorial regimes are welcome in our hemisphere,” it said in a statement as reported by ABC news.

The statement also noted that 10 additional “regime-linked properties” had been added to the List of Prohibited Accommodations of the US State Department.

“While the Cuban people suffer shortages of food, water, medicine, and electricity, the regime lavishes money on its insiders,” Rubio said.

Soon after the announcement, Johana Tablada, the deputy director for US affairs at Cuba’s Foreign Ministry, slammed Rubio on X, labeling him a “defender of genocide, prisons and mass deportations.”