United States sanctions Cuban president four years after protests

(Patria) - The United States has announced sanctions against Cuban President Miguel Diaz-
Canel due to his role "in the brutality of the Cuban regime towards the Cuban people".

The U.S. State Department is "limiting visas" for the president and other senior government officials, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio in a post on social network X on the fourth anniversary of historic anti-government protests in Cuba, reported AFP.

Among other sanctioned officials are Minister of Defense Alvaro Lopez Miera and Minister of the Interior Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez sharply criticized the latest measures, saying the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump cannot "break the will of the people or its leaders".

The State Department has added "Torre K", a forty-two-story hotel in Havana, to the list of sanctioned entities "to prevent U.S. dollars from financing the repression of the Cuban regime".

The facility, recently opened in the central part of the Cuban capital, has drawn criticism for huge government investments in new hotels at a time when tourism is declining.

"While the Cuban people suffer from shortages of food, water, medicine, and electricity, the regime is squandering money on its insiders," Rubio said.

Rubio also accused Cuba of torturing dissident leader Jose Daniel Ferrer, four years after the government suppressed mass protests. "The United States demands immediate proof of life and the release of all political prisoners," Rubio said.

Hundreds of people were arrested in demonstrations in July 2021, the largest since the Cuban revolution of the 1950s.
They resulted in one death and dozens injured. Ferrer, the leader of the dissident group Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), was among 553 prisoners released in January after former U.S. President Joe Biden agreed to remove Cuba from the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

But at the end of April, his parole was revoked, drawing criticism from Washington, which returned Cuba to the blacklist after Trump returned to power.