Rubio Sanctions Cuban Bank, Oil and Mining Companies
The Trump administration Thursday sanctioned one of Raúl Castro’s grandsons, a Cuban bank and four companies involved in mining and energy.
The newly sanctioned entities are:
Banco Exterior de Cuba, which handles foreign-trade financing and international transactions
Comercial CUPET S.A., which represents Cuba’s state oil company in negotiations and joint ventures with foreign companies
ABAPET, which imports equipment and supplies for Cuba’s oil industry
Nicarotec, which provides technical services to the nickel industry
CEXNI, which imports machinery and supplies for Cuba’s nickel and cobalt industry
Fidel Ernesto Castro Calis, a grandson of Raúl Castro
The new sanctions expand the Trump administration’s assault on Cuba’s nickel and cobalt industry, after it previously blacklisted the Moa Nickel joint venture and the state-owned Ernesto Che Guevara nickel processing facility.
Nicarotec and CEXNI, both designated Thursday, provide the technical services, machinery, raw materials and replacement equipment that Cuba’s mining industry needs to keep running.
Sanctioning these entities could make it harder for Cuban mining operations to develop deposits and import specialized equipment. Foreign manufacturers, shipping companies and banks that work with either company now risk “secondary sanctions” for doing business with blacklisted Cuban entities under Trump’s May 1 executive order.
Thursday’s measures also target Cuba’s oil industry.
ABAPET and Comercial CUPET support Unión CUPET, Cuba’s state-owned oil and gas company that was sanctioned by the Trump administration in June.
Comercial CUPET represents the company in negotiations and joint ventures with foreign partners, while ABAPET imports equipment and supplies for the oil industry.
Since the U.S. imposed an oil blockade on Cuba in January, the island has become increasingly dependent on domestic oil production — though it can only produce about 40 percent of Cuba’s domestic fuel needs.
Just one oil tanker has arrived in Cuba since January.
By sanctioning the companies responsible for negotiating foreign energy projects and importing equipment and spare parts, Washington is simultaneously cutting the island off from foreign oil supplies and preventing it from maintaining the infrastructure needed to refine its own oil.
The measures threaten to deepen fuel shortages already disrupting electricity generation, transportation, agriculture and other essential services across the island.