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The Trump administration on Thursday announced new U.S. sanctions on Cuba targeting an oil shipping network, state-owned companies, China-based suppliers of the island’s military and people tied to the elite that controls much of its economy.
The sanctions include Any Rodríguez Lastres, the daughter of Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, president of GAESA, the Cuban military’s business conglomerate.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio made the announcement in a press statement, saying he was designating ten targets and identifying five vessels as blocked property. A State Department fact sheet breaks the targets down as eight entities and two individuals.
The designations were issued under Executive Order 14404, which President Donald Trump signed on May 1, 2026, to sanction those responsible for repression in Cuba and for threats to U.S. national security and foreign policy.
Also on the list is Guillermo Faustino Rodríguez López-Calleja, who Rubio said is part of an extensive web of offshore shipping companies moving Cuban crude oil to and from the island.
The State Department designated him for operating in the energy sector of the Cuban economy. Washington says the regime relies on offshore intermediaries to keep that system running.
The companies and tankers in the sanctioned oil network
Four companies tied to moving crude oil and petroleum products were designated:
- CAROIL Transport Marine Ltd: a Cyprus-based manager of Cuban-flagged tankers. The Treasury Department first sanctioned it in September 2019.
- Tentacool Commercial Inc: a Panama-based company and registered owner of the Gloria C.
- Internacional Marítima SA: a Cuba-based company and registered owner of the Esperanza.
- Petróleos Marítimos del Caribe S.A. (Petromarca): a Cuba-based manager and operator of two Cuban-flagged petroleum product tankers.
The five vessels identified as blocked property are the Esperanza, Gloria C and Maria Cristina, commercially managed by CAROIL, and the Emilia and Lourdes, commercially managed by Petromarca.
U.S. sanctions on Cuba reach the GAESA president’s daughter
The State Department designated Rodríguez Lastres as an adult family member of Lastres Morera, who was already under sanctions. It also noted that she previously served as commercial director of Terminal de Contenedores de Mariel, another U.S.-designated entity.
The fact sheet says regime insiders and their relatives continue to profit from the government’s control of the economy, including through opaque networks tied to GAESA.
GAESA has spent decades building a large share of Cuba’s most profitable businesses, with a presence in tourism, retail and finance, making it a central piece of the armed forces’ power and of the regime’s finances. CPM has also reported on GAESA and Cuba’s private firms.
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China-based suppliers of Cuba’s military
The new U.S. sanctions on Cuba also hit two China-based companies it says supplied components and equipment to sustain the Cuban military: China National Electronic Import and Export Company (CEIEC) and Beijing H&C Technologies.
According to the fact sheet, CEIEC, a state-owned exporter of defense electronics and security systems, contracted in 2026 with Sociedad Mercantil Duna S.A. to export components for equipment used by Cuba’s Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces. Beijing H&C, a subsidiary of CETC International that sells surveillance and security equipment, worked with Duna that same year to export military equipment to Cuba. Washington designated Duna on August 6.
Cubaelectrónica and Tecnosime also on the list
The two Cuban state-owned entities designated are Cubaelectrónica, which imports supplies and equipment for the country’s electronics industry, and Tecnosime, which Washington says conducts commercial, labor and promotional activities that generate revenue for the state.
What the Treasury determination allows
Separately, the Treasury Department issued a determination authorizing sanctions on any foreign person operating or having operated in the electronics, manufacturing, marine and technology sectors of the Cuban economy.
The State Department warned that foreign persons in those sectors, as well as in energy, defense, mining, financial services or security, and those who do business with designated parties, are at risk of sanctions.
Property of the designated parties in the United States or controlled by U.S. persons is blocked. The State Department said the measures target the regime and those who enable it, not the Cuban people, and that humanitarian trade, including food, medicine and medical devices, remains authorized.
Rubio: Cuba’s elite hoards the island’s resources
In his statement, Rubio said Cuba’s ruling elite is hoarding the island’s energy, shipping and technology resources for its own enrichment, leaving Cubans to contend with blackouts, shortages and a stagnant economy.
“The Trump Administration will not stand by while the Cuban regime funnels the island’s resources to its military elite, while regime insiders and their family members profit from opaque offshore networks,” the secretary of state said.
He also accused Havana of serving as a staging ground for a global coalition of hostile anti-American actors.
The statement says the action also furthers Executive Order 14380, “Addressing Threats to the United States by the Government of Cuba,” and National Security Presidential Memorandum 5, which directs the executive branch to improve human rights, encourage the rule of law, foster free markets and free enterprise, and promote democracy in Cuba.
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