US Sanctions Grandson of Former Cuban Leader Raúl Castro

New US sanctions targeting Fidel Ernesto Castro, the grandson of former Cuban President Raúl Castro, also hit a Cuban state company responsible for importing specialized equipment and spare parts for the island’s failing power grid.

The company, Cuba’s Oil Industry Supply Import Company, known as Abapet, supplies machinery needed to keep the grid operating. Brett Erickson, a sanctions expert and managing principal at Obsidian Risk Advisors, said the measures were intended to push critical equipment offline and deepen Cuba’s energy crisis.

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The US is trying to really tighten the screws as much as possible.

“The US is trying to really tighten the screws as much as possible,” Erickson said, according to The Associated Press. He said the Trump administration appeared unwilling to accept changes from Cuba short of the government’s removal, and predicted that Havana would try to evade the sanctions because it had no alternative. Procuring maintenance parts through more expensive channels, he warned, would increase inflation and further damage the economy.

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The Trump administration seems to have no seriousness to accept any change from Cuba other than a toppling of regime. Marco is not going to let that go.

Blackouts have become increasingly common across the island, with daily outages now exceeding 24 hours as the aging grid fails and fuel reserves decline. The crisis intensified after President Donald Trump threatened in late January to impose tariffs on countries that sell or provide oil to Cuba. Erickson said the policy sought to create enough civilian hardship to trigger opposition to the government, calling it “an attempt to cause a humanitarian crisis.”

Talks between the United States and Cuba earlier this year have stopped, while sanctions have expanded to smaller state companies. The State Department announced the latest measures only hours after Cuban officials detailed economic reforms approved in June. Deputy Prime Minister and Investment Minister Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga blamed Washington, saying, “The blockade is a genocide.”

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It is an attempt to cause a humanitarian crisis.

For 49-year-old Yaqueline Bernal, the power cuts have become a daily threat to basic services. She said she had been without electricity since Sunday and was especially worried about her eight young grandchildren. “If we don’t have power, we don’t have water,” she said. “You really don’t know what’s going to happen to you.”

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If we don’t have power, we don’t have water. You really don’t know what’s going to happen to you.