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Díaz-Canel answers the new US sanctions: “They will not break us”

The Cuban president said on X that the measures announced by Washington this week are part of a “design of economic strangulation and collective punishment,” while the Treasury Department added Chinese companies to its list and opened Cuba's manufacturing, technology, electronics and maritime sectors to sanctions.

“It is part of the same design of economic strangulation and collective punishment to subdue an entire nation, with lying and absurd justifications that neither the world nor US citizens believe,” Miguel Díaz-Canel wrote on X, in a message carried by Cubadebate. “They will not break us,” added the Cuban president, who argued that the threat is not Cuba but the US economic, commercial and financial embargo.

On November 5, the Treasury Department sanctioned Guillermo Faustino Rodríguez López-Calleja, brother of the late head of the military conglomerate GAESA, and Any Rodríguez Lastres, daughter of the group's current president, Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera. The action also hit shipping companies in Panama, Cuba and Cyprus, the Cuban state firms Cubaelectrónica and Tecnosime, and the Chinese companies Beijing H&C Technologies and China National Electronics Import and Export Corporation (CEIEC), which Washington accuses of supplying military components and equipment through Cuba's Duna S.A. Vessels linked to oil transport were also designated, according to UPI.

The furthest-reaching measure is a determination by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) authorising sanctions on foreign persons who operate or have operated in Cuba's manufacturing, technology, electronics and maritime sectors, according to Cubadebate, an expansion UPI describes in the same terms.

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez said on X that the sanctions on the Chinese firms are part of a “sick policy of economic strangulation” that, he claimed, is designed and directed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and called them “extraterritorial and illegal.” China's foreign ministry spokesman, Guo Jiakun, said cooperation with Cuba is “entirely legitimate and transparent,” rejected unilateral sanctions and said Beijing would take steps to protect its companies.

Sources: Cubadebate · UPI

Data updated: 2026-11-08T16:15:00.000Z

Díaz-Canel answers the new US sanctions: “They will not break us” | Yamacoa Observatory