Rubio defends new US sanctions aimed at Cuba’s GAESA

Cuba policy took a fresh turn Friday as U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the Trump administration’s latest sanctions package aimed at Cuba’s military-linked business conglomerate GAESA, while warning that foreign firms that deal with GAESA-linked interests face a broader set of U.S. risks.

Rubio defended the decision to impose new sanctions on Cuba, according to the Associated Press, including the largest measure against GAESA, which is described as being operated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. The administration also announced additional designations tied to GAESA, and it said the measures were designed to pressure GAESA rather than Cuba’s broader population.

In the same remarks, Rubio said the sanctions were not aimed at “the Cuban people.” He referred to GAESA as a company that is “is taking anything that makes money in Cuba and illegally putting it into the pockets of a few regime insiders.”

The Associated Press reported that in addition to GAESA, the sanctions announced Thursday include Moa Nickel, a Cuban joint venture involving Canada’s Sherritt International. Sherritt International said it would withdraw immediately from the business, ending a 32-year presence on the island.

The package also followed a May 1 executive order that the U.S. government used to expand the legal authority behind the sanctions. Lee Schlenker, a research associate at the Quincy Institute’s Global South program, said the May 1 order and the new designations announced May 7 “significantly expand the legal authority through which the U.S. government can levy sanctions on third-country nationals and firms.”

Schlenker told the Associated Press that under the expanded framework, the sanctions involve more than freezing assets. He said affected people can face restrictions including having their U.S. accounts frozen and being blocked from travel to the United States, adding that the change is expected to have “an extremely significant impact” on the presence of foreign companies in Cuba.

Economist Pavel Vidal, a Cuba expert at Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Colombia, said the new measures are “very concerning” for an economy he described as “practically paralyzed.” Vidal also pointed to fuel-related restrictions already in place, saying the U.S. has blocked fuel shipments to Cuba since January and that those restrictions have further escalated the island’s yearslong economic crisis.

Vidal said the new sanctions would likely deter GAESA’s remaining partners, arguing that “very few will risk defying them.” He described the measures as amounting to “total isolation,” explaining that the deterrent effect works through the fear the rules instill in international banks, insurers, and corporations.

The sanctions arrive in a context in which U.S. policy has continued to tighten pressure on Cuba’s economy. The Associated Press reported that Cuban authorities characterize the new U.S. measures as “collective punishment” aimed at strangling the island’s economy, and they argue the Trump administration’s policies reflect disregard for Cuban people in favor of political leverage.

Within Cuba’s economy, GAESA is described as having deep reach across sectors, and the Associated Press reported that Vidal said any connection to the island through GAESA could carry liability under the new U.S. rules. Vidal also said GAESA commands nearly 40% of Cuba’s gross domestic product and that, as of early 2024, it held $14.5 billion in liquid reserves.

The Associated Press further reported that GAESA is state-owned but that its accounts are exempt from audits by the Office of the Comptroller General, an arrangement that Bejerano acknowledged in a 2024 interview before she retired. The report said that until his death in July 2022, Luis Alberto Rodríguez López-Calleja served as GAESA’s general manager, and that after he died, his successor Ania Guillermina Lastres became GAESA’s executive president.

For the new sanctions, the U.S. also singled out GAESA-linked governance and financial interests, the Associated Press reported. The administration’s move to widen sanctions reach to foreign firms and their personnel is expected to raise the cost of doing business in Cuba for companies with GAESA-adjacent exposure, analysts said, while Sherritt International’s decision to withdraw from Moa Nickel illustrated how quickly the rules can force corporate exits.