Cuba hit with new US sanctions

The United States has announced new sanctions against Cuba, restricting certain financial transactions and travel by US citizens to the island. The measures, announced by the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control, prohibit indirect financial transactions with sanctioned Cuban entities, particularly those linked to the security apparatus and to Gaesa, the Cuban military's economic conglomerate.

The new regulations remove authorisation for US banks to open and maintain accounts solely in the name of a Cuban national who is an independent private sector entrepreneur, according to Free Malaysia Today. This move reverses a previous authorisation made during Democrat Joe Biden's presidency, which aimed to support Cuba's nascent private sector.

The sanctions come as Cuba is struggling with a deep economic and energy crisis. The US already imposes a de facto oil embargo on the island, and these new measures are expected to further impact Cuba's private sector, which is in full development, as reported by Le Monde Economie.

Brief written by urgent.news from Le Monde Economie, Free Malaysia Today — 2 reports on this story. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.