US hits Cuba with new sanctions as island’s crises multiply

US hits Cuba with new sanctions as island’s crises multiply 1 of 5 | A man rests on a sofa on a street in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Aug. 27, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) 2 of 5 | Director of the International Press Center, (CPI), Abel Ernesto Derivet Vidal, left, and Cuba’s Deputy Prime Minister Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga walk past an image of the late Fidel Castro as they arrive for a press conference at the CPI in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Sept. 3, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) 3 of 5 | A man carries a pig at the entrance of a market, decorated with a mural of Fidel Castro, in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) 4 of 5 | A man sleeps in the doorway of his home while others pass the time trying to cool off in the street in Havana, Cuba, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) 5 of 5 | Children drag toys made from cardboard boxes as they walk in Minas, in Cuba’s Havana province, Monday, Aug. 31, 2026. (AP Photo/Ramon Espinosa) By DÁNICA COTO Updated 1:26 AM MESZ, September 4, 2026 Leer en español Add AP News on Google Add AP News as your preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. Share Share Facebook Copy Link copied Print Email X LinkedIn Bluesky Flipboard Pinterest Reddit Havana (AP) — The U.S. government on Thursday slapped new sanctions on Cuba in a fresh push to strangle the island’s economy and deepen its multiple crises. Among those hit with sanctions are Fidel Ernesto Castro, grandson of former President Raúl Castro, and Cuba’s Oil Industry Supply Import Company, known as Abapet. The company is responsible for importing special equipment and spare parts needed to sustain Cuba’s crumbling power grid. The sanctions aim to push Cuba’s critical machinery offline and exacerbate its energy crisis, said Brett Erickson, a sanctions expert and managing principal at Obsidian Risk Advisors, a consulting firm. “The U.S. is trying to really tighten the screws as much as possible,” he said. “The Trump administration seems to have no seriousness to accept any change from Cuba other than a toppling of regime. Marco is not going to let that go,” he added, referring to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Erickson anticipated that Cuba’s government would try to circumvent the sanctions “because they have to.” “They’ll get creative in how they try to procure these maintenance parts,” he said, warning it would be a costlier alternative, which in turn would raise inflation and further hurt Cuba’s economy. Islandwide blackouts have become increasingly common, while daily outages in Cuba now surpass 24 hours as the aging grid fails and fuel reserves dwindle ever since U.S. President Donald Trump in late January threatened tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to the island. Cuba says US sanctions are blocking its efforts to open the economy to private investment 1 MIN READ US ramps up Cuba sanctions and detentions of Americans returning from the island 3 MIN READ Cuba marks Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday as his shadow still shapes a nation in crisis 3 MIN READ “The goal in theory is to create so much civilian hardship and suffering that they have no option but to essentially rise up and topple their government,” Erickson said. “It is an attempt to cause a humanitarian crisis.” Talks earlier this year between the U.S. and Cuba have since halted, while sanctions have increased in recent months. Erickson said he expects the U.S. to keep targeting smaller and smaller state companies to try and push them “into a death spiral.” The U.S. has previously sanctioned entities including Cuba’s state-owned oil and gas company. The U.S. State Department made the announcement just hours after Cuban officials held a press conference to share more details on the historic economic reforms approved in June. When asked about the current situation in Cuba, Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, Cuba’s deputy prime minister and minister of foreign investment, blamed the U.S. government. “This past year has been very complex, and we know why,” he said. “The blockade is a genocide.” Among the Cubans exhausted by the ongoing outages is 49-year-old Yaqueline Bernal. She said Thursday that she hasn’t had electricity since Sunday and worries most about the consequences for her eight young grandchildren. “If we don’t have power, we don’t have water,” she said. “You really don’t know what’s going to happen to you.” Bruno Rodríguez, Cuba’s foreign affairs minister, decried the latest sanctions on X. “Collective punishment is a crime. So, too, is inflicting suffering on an entire population through measures coldly calculated to trigger a humanitarian crisis,” he said. “Enough with the abuse. Put an end to the blockade once and for all and allow Cuba to live in peace.” Eugenio Martínez Enríquez, Cuba’s ambassador in Mexico, called Rubio “a liar without scruples.” Meanwhile, Rubio asserted on X that those sanctioned “are part of the corrupt Castro financial and intelligence network.” “Cuba’s Communist regime elites preside over a failed state where ordinary Cubans go hungry while the Castro family and other insiders enrich themselves through sanctions evasion and other illicit schemes — and seek to export subversive Marxist ideology to the United States and other states in the Western Hemisphere,” he wrote. “Trump and I are unwavering in our commitment that Cuba will be free.” Follow AP’s Latin America coverage at https://apnews.com/hub/latin-america