US sanctions Castro grandson and Abapet, worsening Cuba's power crisis

Washington sanctioned Fidel Ernesto Castro and Abapet as Cuba's power crisis deepens. The move is expected to worsen blackouts, inflation and humanitarian distress across the island.Image used for representational purposes onlyThe US government on Thursday imposed new sanctions on Cuba, targeting Fidel Ernesto Castro, grandson of former president Raul Castro, and Cuba's Oil Industry Supply Import Company, or Abapet, in a move expected to worsen the island's economic and energy crises.Abapet imports special equipment and spare parts needed to keep Cuba's ageing power grid running. Brett Erickson, a sanctions expert and managing principal at Obsidian Risk Advisors, said the measures aim to push critical machinery offline and deepen the energy crisis."The US is trying to really tighten the screws as much as possible," Erickson said. "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," he added, referring to US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.Erickson said Cuba's government would try to get around the sanctions "because they have to". "They'll get creative in how they try to procure these maintenance parts," he said, warning that the alternative would be costlier, raise inflation and further hurt Cuba's economy. Islandwide blackouts have become increasingly common, and daily outages in Cuba now go beyond 24 hours as the ageing grid fails and fuel reserves dwindle after US President Donald Trump in late January threatened tariffs on any country that sells or provides oil to the island."The goal in theory is to create so much civilian hardship and suffering that they have no option but to essentially rise up and topple their government," Erickson said. "It is an attempt to cause a humanitarian crisis." He also said talks between the US and Cuba earlier this year had since halted, while sanctions had increased in recent months. Erickson said he expects the US to keep targeting smaller state companies to push them "into a death spiral". The US has previously sanctioned entities including Cuba's state-owned oil and gas company. The US State Department announced the sanctions hours after Cuban officials held a press conference to share more details on the economic reforms approved in June. Speaking before the sanctions were announced, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Investment Oscar Perez-Oliva Fraga blamed the US government for the situation. "This past year has been very complex, and we know why," he said. "The blockade is a genocide."Among those affected by the outages is 49-year-old Yaqueline Bernal, who said on Thursday that she had not had electricity since Sunday and was most worried about the impact on 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."Cuba's ambassador in Mexico, Eugenio Martinez Enriquez, condemned the sanctions on Thursday, writing on X: "These neofascists aim to win through attrition and to make life unbearable for the people of Cuba." Rubio, meanwhile, said on X that those sanctioned "are part of the corrupt Castro financial and intelligence network."Rubio added: "Cuba's Communist regime elites preside over a failed state where ordinary Cubans go hungry while the Castro family and other insiders enrich themselves through sanctions evasion and other illicit schemes - and seek to export subversive Marxist ideology to the United States and other states in the Western Hemisphere." He said, "Trump and I are unwavering in our commitment that Cuba will be free."The new US measures have added to pressure on Cuba by targeting a member of the Castro family and a company linked to maintaining the power grid, as the island continues to face blackouts, fuel shortages and wider economic distress.With PTI Inputs- EndsPublished By: India Today Web Desk Published On: Sep 4, 2026 04:55 IST