The United States has imposed sanctions on Cuba’s President, Miguel Diaz-Canel.
This is the latest of numerous measures adopted against the communist-led island.
Revealed on Thursday, the sanctions are part of Washington’s efforts to raise pressure on Cuba’s leadership.
According to Al Jazeera, the new sanctions also take aim at the president’s wife and stepson, as well as the son and a grandson of former president Raul Castro.
The Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces has also been targeted, along with the Cuban military and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, which is tasked with monitoring counter-revolutionary activity.
The Cuban leader responded by writing on social media: “This political blindness is added to the coercive measures applied in recent weeks against our country, designed to harm the Cuban people. The aggressiveness and perversity of the Yankee government will clash with our determination to confront the worst scenarios and resist the imperialist onslaught.”
An energy blockade enforced by the US Navy in recent weeks has provoked critical blackouts and food shortages.
Washington claims that Cuba’s communist regime threatens US security.
President Donald Trump has been threatening to take military action against the island since seizing Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro in January, as he raises efforts to push left-wing governments out of the Americas.
