The U.S. government sanctioned six new targets tied to Cuba on Thursday, September 3, 2026, including 31-year-old Fidel Ernesto Castro Calis, grandson of former president Raúl Castro, as the island's power grid buckles under a fuel shortage that has left some households without electricity for more than a day at a stretch. The move adds a state bank and four oil and mining enterprises to the U.S. sanctions list, deepening an economic squeeze that Cuban officials say is worsening an already dire humanitarian situation.
The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the six targets under Executive Order 14404, a mechanism President Trump signed on May 1, 2026 that lets Washington freeze U.S. assets and impose secondary sanctions on foreign banks and companies doing business with the Cuban state, according to Hoodline's earlier coverage. Along with Castro Calis, the list includes state-owned Banco Exterior de Cuba and four state enterprises spanning the oil and mining sectors: Comercial CUPET S.A., ABAPET, NICAROTEC and CEXNI, per the U.S. Department of the Treasury. ABAPET is responsible for importing the equipment and spare parts needed to sustain Cuba's crumbling power grid, and U.S. officials say the sanctions are designed to push that critical machinery offline and worsen the island's energy crisis, as reported by ClickOnDetroit.
Castro Calis was designated as an adult family member of his father, Alejandro Castro Espín, a former senior interior ministry official under Raúl Castro. His father and brother, Raúl Alejandro Castro Calis, were already sanctioned on June 4, 2026 under the same executive order, according to the U.S. Department of State. The latest action effectively completes a three-generation sweep of the Castro family's inner financial circle.
A Grid Already on the Brink
Cuba needs roughly 100,000 barrels of crude oil and refined fuel a day to keep its power grid running, but domestic production covers only about 40,000 barrels, leaving a 60,000-barrel daily gap once filled by foreign imports, per Pressbee. That shortfall has translated into power outages in parts of the island, according to ClickOnDetroit's report. In Havana, 49-year-old Yaqueline Bernal, who cares for eight young grandchildren, told the outlet she has had no electricity since Sunday. Cuba relies on imported fuel, and oil is used in its electricity generation.
Beyond petroleum infrastructure, Thursday's sanctions also reached into Cuba's mining sector, blacklisting nickel importer CEXNI and mining support firm NICAROTEC, based in Holguín province, according to a report from CiberCuba. Nickel operations in Moa and Mayarí are among the mining activities affected, meaning the designations threaten the mining sector as well as the grid.
A Carve-Out for Diplomats
Alongside the new designations, OFAC issued Cuba General License 4A, which supersedes July 2026 guidance and explicitly authorizes foreign diplomatic and consular missions in Cuba to process funds and maintain bank accounts despite the broader restrictions on Cuban financial institutions, according to the Treasury Department. The authorization covers those missions while broader restrictions on Cuban financial institutions remain in place.
Officials Trade Accusations
Secretary of State Marco Rubio asserted that those sanctioned are part of the corrupt Castro financial and intelligence network, and said Cuba's communist regime elites enrich themselves through sanctions evasion and other illicit schemes while presiding over a failed state where ordinary Cubans go hungry. Rubio added that the elites seek to export subversive Marxist ideology to the United States and other Western Hemisphere states, and said, per ClickOnDetroit's report, “Trump and I are unwavering in our commitment that Cuba will be free.”
Cuban officials pushed back sharply. Oscar Pérez-Oliva Fraga, Cuba's deputy prime minister and minister of foreign investment, said the U.S. blockade is a genocide, according to the same report. Eugenio Martínez Enríquez, Cuba's ambassador in Mexico, condemned the sanctions and wrote that they aim to win through attrition. Talks between the U.S. and Cuba have halted amid the escalating pressure campaign.
Analysts Expect Evasion, Rising Costs
Brett Erickson said the U.S. is trying to really tighten the screws as much as possible, and that the sanctions aim to push Cuba's critical machinery offline and exacerbate its energy crisis, per ClickOnDetroit. He also discussed the sanctions' potential effects on Cuba's energy system. Cuba has previously turned to non-Western allies to keep fuel flowing; in late March 2026, the Russian-flagged tanker Anatoly Kolodkin delivered roughly 700,000 to 730,000 barrels of crude oil to the Matanzas refining terminal, one of the few large shipments to reach the island this year, as Hoodline previously reported.
Part of a Broader 2026 Campaign
Wednesday's designations follow an earlier wave of high-level sanctions on June 4, 2026, when Washington blacklisted Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, his spouse Lis Cuesta Peraza, stepson Manuel Anido Cuesta and several senior executives within the military-run conglomerate GAESA, according to Shafaq News. U.S. sanctions against Cuba have increased in recent months, and the executive branch has carried out more than two dozen distinct sanction actions against Cuban targets this year. President Trump also signed Presidential Determination 2026-21 on August 20, 2026, extending presidential authorities under the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act regarding Cuba through September 14, 2027, per Voz, a 1917 law cited in the presidential determination.
Facing severe foreign exchange deficits and chronic power outages, the Cuban government approved economic reforms in June and July 2026 aimed at opening select commercial sectors to expanded private ownership and foreign trade, according to the World Socialist Web Site. But ABAPET and CUPET are state-owned enterprises, while private ventures remain exposed to the same sanctions squeezing the broader grid. For families like Bernal's, waiting out blackouts with eight grandchildren at home, the reforms offer little relief while the lights stay off.
