The president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, has reiterated his confidence that the country "will come out victorious" against the blockade imposed by the United States, a policy that Havana has condemned on numerous occasions, even in light of the recent package of sanctions with which Washington seeks to increase pressure on the island.
"The executioners seem to have chosen Thursdays to make their blacklists public with names of people and institutions whose only crime is serving Cuba, facing the genocidal blockade," lamented Díaz-Canel in a message disseminated on social media, referring to the frequency with which these measures are announced.
After the latest announcement from the Department of the Treasury, made public on Thursday, the leader insisted that "we will know how to resist and overcome. And the United States will remain on the shameful list of genociders," thus reinforcing his discourse of resistance against U.S. pressure.
On the eve, the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez, had denounced that these measures respond to the "deliberate purpose" of the United States to harm the national economy and hinder the government's ability to guarantee basic services to the citizenry.
On the same day, the U.S. Department of the Treasury announced sanctions targeting three individuals and nine companies and entities from Cuba, including the Ministry of Construction, thus expanding the scope of economic restrictions.
U.S. authorities also included four companies from the metallurgical and mineral sector that, according to Washington, operate "for the benefit of the regime": Acinox Comercial, Geominsal, Metalcuba, and Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara nickel company.
At the end of January, the U.S. Administration had already authorized the imposition of tariffs on imports from countries that supply oil to Cuba and declared a state of emergency in the face of an alleged threat to its national security, a decision that, according to Cuban authorities, has deepened the fuel shortage on the island.