United States imposed New Sanctions against Cuba

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US government announced sanctions last week against the minister of the Cuban armed forces Álvaro López Miera, and the Special Brigade of the Ministry of the Interior for having participated in the arrest of protesters. International organizations have massively criticized the Cuban government. They said people affected by the country’s crisis participated in the protests. There were also criminals who took advantage of the situation to create disturbances. However, the protests turned into vandalism with looting, robbery, and confrontations with the police. Point to be noted that government sympathizers also took to the streets to defend the authorities and the revolution. It is still unclear how many people were detained but the judicial authorities have said there have been 19 trials involving 59 people.

Now, the Biden administration announced new sanctions against Cuba’s national-revolutionary police and its top two officials. The United States looks to increase pressure on the communist government following this month’s protests on the island. The Police National Revolcionaria and the agency’s director and deputy director, Oscar Callejas Valcarce and Eddie Sierra Arias, were targeted in the latest sanctions. The police are part of Cuba’s interior ministry, which was already the subject of a blanket designation by the Trump administration back in January. President Biden met with Cuban Americans at the White House before the announcement of new sanctions. He said, “We hear the cries of freedom coming from the island. The United States is taking concerted action to bolster the cause of the Cuban people”.

The Biden administration said Washington is considering a wide range of additional options in response to the protests. It includes providing internet access to Cubans and has created a working group to review US remittance policy. The measure will ensure that more of the money that Cuban Americans send home makes it directly into the hands of their families without the government taking a cut. President Biden also said that more sanctions were in the offing. The White House meeting came 3 weeks after unusual 11^th July protests in which thousands of Cubans took to the streets in Havana and other cities to protest shortages, power outages, and government policies. The Treasury Department said in a statement that the Cuban regime deployed the PNR to attack protesters.