Trump’s Cuba Sanctions Target Solidarity Groups and Foreign Investors
The Trump administration last week sanctioned three leaders of Cuba’s Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) after targeting the institute itself in June. The three individuals are:
Fernando González Llort, ICAP’s President
Noemi Ramona Rabaza Fernández, ICAP’s First Vice-President
Leima Martínez Freire, ICAP’s North America Director
ICAP is a Cuban government institute that has organized international cultural exchanges and solidarity delegations to the island since 1960.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that the organization is used to “corrupt and radicalize Americans” as part of a “vast subversive network” — language that echoes the 100-page McCarythite report published by the State Department last month.
The sanctions are part of a broader State Department-led campaign to target solidarity activists who oppose the Trump administration’s economic war on the island.
That campaign has included harassing activists who travel to Cuba.
Last week, U.S. citizens returning through Miami International Airport after attending celebrations that marked the centenary of Fidel Castro’s birth in Havana were stopped for secondary screening, with some having their cellphones and other devices seized for inspection.
In May, the U.S. Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sent requests for information to progressive streamer Hasan Piker and CodePink co-founder Medea Benjamin, seeking records on whether they’d violated U.S. sanctions law during a March trip with the “Nuestra América Convoy,” a humanitarian mission that brought roughly 20 tons of life-saving supplies to the island. At least 20 U.S. activists who participated in March’s convoy were detained at Miami International Airport upon returning.
Watch Belly of the Beast journalist Liz Oliva Fernández’s interview with Medea Benjamin.
Driving Out Foreign Companies, Clearing the Way for U.S. Investors
The most recent wave of sanctions were not limited to ICAP. Rubio also sanctioned Cuba’s Ministry of Construction and eight other entities across the mining, metals and transport industries.
Among the newly-blacklisted entities is Empresa de Níquel Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara, a state-owned nickel and cobalt processing facility. The facility is located five miles from Moa Nickel, S.A., where Canada’s Sherritt International has mined nickel and cobalt since the 1990s through a joint venture half-owned by Cuba’s state-run General Nickel Company.
Moa Nickel was sanctioned under Donald Trump’s May 1 executive order, which imposes “secondary sanctions” on non-U.S. companies doing business with blacklisted Cuban entities.
The pressure immediately produced a potential opening for a politically connected U.S. investor.
Days after Moa Nickel was sanctioned and Sherritt suspended its Cuba operations, Ray Washburne, a former Trump adviser who led the U.S. Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) in the first Trump administration, signed a pre-agreement to acquire a majority stake in Sherritt.
Washburne and his wife, Heather, co-chair the host committee for the Republican Party’s September midterm convention, which Trump, Vice President JD Vance and numerous cabinet officials are expected to attend. Washburne told Reuters that the committee has raised $42 million to fund the event.
He's no longer the only U.S.-based investor interested in acquiring Sherritt. A rival consortium consisting of an unnamed U.S. anchor investor, commodities trader Glencore, London-based Kyma Capital and hedge-fund investor Trifon Natsis is also vying for the same 55 percent stake sought by Washburne’s Gillon Capital.
In addition to Cuba’s nickel and cobalt, gold has also drawn interest from a U.S. investor looking to take advantage of Trump administration sanctions.
On June 4, the Trump administration sanctioned Minera La Victoria, the 50/50 joint venture between Australia's Antilles Gold and Cuba's state-run GeoMinera S.A.
Antilles halted funding and direct management of the venture, suspended its shares on the Australian exchange for a week and paused construction at its Nueva Sabana gold-copper project.
By late June, the company had submitted a proposal to the State Department offering to hand at least 51 percent of its Cayman Islands subsidiary, Antilles Gold Inc., to a U.S. investor. Antilles said it was "encouraged" by Washington's response in early July.