The move comes as Cuba continues to experience food shortages and power outages.
Published June 5, 2026
The United States has imposed sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel, the latest in a number of measures taken against communist-led Cuba.
The sanctions, announced Thursday on the U.S. Treasury Department’s website, are part of the U.S. government’s efforts to increase pressure on Cuba’s leadership. An energy blockade by the U.S. Navy caused severe power outages and food shortages.
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The new sanctions also target the president’s wife and son-in-law, as well as the son and grandson of former President Raul Castro, brother of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, for whom the United States issued an arrest warrant last month.
The Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces has also been targeted, along with the Committee for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR), which is tasked with monitoring the Cuban military and counterrevolutionary activities.
The U.S. government claims Cuba’s communist regime threatens U.S. security. President Donald Trump has threatened military action against the island since January’s abduction of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro and has vowed to drive the leftist government out of the Americas, arguing it is vital to U.S. national interests.
“We’re going to take care of the Islamic Republic of Iran, and once that’s done, we’re going to make a quick stop on the way home,” Trump said Thursday, alluding to Cuba.
Díaz-Canel accused President Trump of trying to “intensify the blockade and conflict scenario between Cuba and the United States.”
“This political blindness is in addition to the coercive measures applied against our country in recent weeks with the aim of harming the Cuban people. The aggressiveness and perversion of the Yankee government will clash with our determination to face the worst-case scenario and resist the imperialist onslaught,” the Cuban leader wrote on social media.
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez called the sanctions “despicable” and said they were the latest example of U.S. interventionism.
“Any threat to Cuba’s independence and sovereignty will be met with even greater unity and determination of our people,” he wrote.
“It feels like it’s kind of collapsed.”
Cuba has been under a U.S. embargo since 1962, but President Trump has significantly increased pressure.
Cuba has been without diesel for generators since January, resulting in power outages of up to 22 hours a day and water shortages.
Additionally, the island is running low on food and medicine and has become dependent on aid from Mexico and China.
President Trump denied that the new sanctions were aimed at accelerating Cuba’s collapse.
“We just want a well-run country,” he said, before adding: “This country is starving. There’s no energy, no oil, no money.”
Asked if the island was close to collapse, he said: “In a sense it is collapsing,” adding: “As soon as the ‘Iran war’ is over, we will deal with it.”
The United States announced criminal charges against Mr. Castro for allegedly shooting down two small planes operated by the exile group Brothers to the Rescue in 1996.
