US continues to squeeze Cuban economy with new round of sanctions

Cuba announces new pro-market reforms amid threats of a military attack from US President Donald Trump’s administration.The United States has announced a new series of economic sanctions targeting Cuba, its latest step in a campaign to squeeze the island’s already fragile economy.The US State Department said on Thursday that it was sanctioning several Cuban companies and 31-year-old Fidel Ernesto Castro, grandson of 95-year-old former leader Raul Castro.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3‘To play God’: Cuba’s healthcare system collapses under US pressurelist 2 of 3Cuba’s power grid collapses again despite restoration effortslist 3 of 3US pummels Cuban economy with new sanctions on mining, constructionend of list“Cuba’s Communist regime elites preside over a failed state where ordinary Cubans go hungry,” US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a social media post on Thursday.Since January, President Donald Trump has undertaken a heightened campaign to weaken Cuba’s government, in an effort to spur regime change.Part of that campaign has been a series of escalating sanctions, as well as a de facto fuel blockade. Cuba had already been under a historic, decades-long US embargo that stretches back to the Cold War.But Rubio argued that further actions were necessary to penalise Cuba’s leadership for decades of mismanagement and repression.He further accused Cuba of seeking to “export subversive Marxist ideology to the United States and other states in the Western Hemisphere”, echoing Trump’s assertions that the island is a national security threat.Since the start of the heightened pressure campaign in January, Cuba has taken steps to defuse the criticism.In June, it passed its biggest free-market reforms in decades, with 176 new measures. It has also conducted prisoner releases as a “humanitarian and sovereign gesture”.On Thursday, further reforms were announced, with 34 pages of legal changes designed to loosen regulation and state control in industries like tourism.