U.S. sanctions Cuba’s Armed Forces minister and elite unit

RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – The United States sanctioned on Thursday the minister of the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), Alvaro Lopez-Miera, and an elite military unit popularly known as “black wasps” or “black berets”.

The sanctions block any assets Lopez-Miera or members of that elite unit may have under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibit persons in the United States from dealing with them.

“This is just the beginning: the United States will continue to sanction individuals responsible for the oppression of the Cuban people,” U.S. President Joe Biden said in a statement.

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The Treasury Department alleged that the ministry headed by Lopez-Miera has played “an essential role” in the repression of protests in Cuba by “attacking demonstrators and arresting or disappearing more than 100 demonstrators in an attempt to suppress these protests.”

As for the special “black hornet” brigade, the Treasury assures that the Cuban government deployed it last July 11 to “suppress” the protests and “attack demonstrators”, for which it considers it responsible for “serious human rights abuses”.

The sanctions are imposed based on the so-called Global Magnitsky Act, a US legislation that allows the US to freeze financial assets and ban travel to those who violate human rights in any country in the world.

The measure shows Biden’s interest in hardening its policy towards Cuba in light of this month’s protests, even though during the election campaign, he promised to return to the thaw promoted by former President Barack Obama (2009-2017).

The White House is also evaluating other steps, such as reauthorizing remittances to Cuba, banned since last November. However, first, it wants to ensure that the money “gets directly into the hands of the Cuban people,” a U.S. official explained.

Another of the measures that the Biden administration is analyzing is the transfer of more personnel to the U.S. Embassy in Havana to “facilitate diplomatic, consular and civil society participation” and also for “security” reasons.

The president has also ordered his government to work with the private sector and the Congress to make the Internet “more accessible” in Cuba after the blackout of mobile access after the protests.