us-slaps-visa-sanctions-on-cuban-president-over-rights-abuse

The United States has imposed visa sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel and several senior officials, accusing them of gross human rights violations linked to the crackdown on anti-government protests in 2021.

 

The punitive measures, announced late Friday by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio via a statement on X, extend to Defence Minister Álvaro López Miera and Interior Minister Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas.

 

“Four years since the Cuban regime’s brutal crackdown on protestors, the State Department is restricting visas for Cuban regime figureheads … and their cronies for their role in the Cuban regime’s brutality toward the Cuban people,” Rubio stated.

 

Four years since the Cuban regime’s brutal crackdown on protestors, @StateDept is restricting visas for Cuban regime figureheads @DiazCanelB, López Miera, Álvarez Casas, and their cronies for their role in the Cuban regime’s brutality toward the Cuban people. The @StateDept also…

— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) July 11, 2025

 

He further demanded “immediate proof of life and release of political prisoners in the country.”

 

The sanctions come as tensions between Washington and Havana continue to fester. The Cuban government responded with defiance, accusing the US of inciting unrest and orchestrating foreign plots to destabilise its leadership.

 

Cuba has long maintained that the July 2021 protests were a product of economic warfare by the United States and a coordinated campaign involving internal dissidents. Thousands were arrested during and after the demonstrations, with Havana justifying the crackdown as a response to foreign interference.

Also read: US imposes travel ban on 12 nations citing 'security concerns'

 

The island nation remains subject to some of the world’s most enduring economic sanctions, originally imposed by the US in the early 1960s. These were partially relaxed under the Obama administration, but President Donald Trump reinstated many restrictions and, earlier this year, re-added Cuba to the list of state sponsors of terrorism.

 

The Cuban Foreign Ministry, in a statement issued previously, described the US stance as “imperialist and interventionist.” Díaz-Canel has consistently dismissed American criticism and reiterated Havana’s resolve to resist external pressure.

 

“We are free, sovereign, and independent, and we are going to continue building our revolution, despite the tightening of the blockade,” he had said last year.

 

Washington’s latest measures reflect a renewed hardline approach to Cuba under the Trump administration, reversing years of cautious rapprochement and highlighting enduring ideological divides between the Cold War-era adversaries.