The US is widening its Cuba blacklist again, and this round zeroes in on energy and industry. The Office of Foreign Assets Control on Thursday added fuel wholesaler Comercial Cupet SA; Banco Exterior de Cuba, founded in 1999; machinery seller ABAPET; and mining-related firms CEXNI and NICAROTEC. Also named: Fidel Ernesto Castro Calis, 31, the son of Alejando Castro Espín, a senior interior ministry official who was sanctioned in June. Another grandson of Raúl Castro, Raúl Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, who had emerged as a possible go between in stalled talks with Washington, remains untouched.
Sanctions experts flagged ABAPET as a key inclusion because it helps source the gear that keeps Cuba's aging power plants running. On a typical day, the island requires about 100,000 barrels of oil, yet local production meets only two-fifths of the need. At the start of January, after the administration moved against Cuba's main backer in Venezuela and halted oil shipments from there to Havana, President Donald Trump has imposed what amounts to a de facto fuel blockade, with only one Russian tanker making a delivery. Cuban officials have pointed to the fuel shortfall as the trigger for four nationwide blackouts in a single month.
"Targeting ABAPET is about adding on to the blockade," wrote Brett Erickson, the managing principal at Obsidian Risk Advisors, in an email. "The United States wants Cuba's energy infrastructure to deteriorate, fall into disrepair, and produce even more crippling blackouts."
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In a bid to dislodge Havana's leadership, Washington has been rolling out new sanctions almost every week against a regime that has controlled the island for nearly seven decades. "The moves reflect Trump's 'unwavering vision for a free Cuba - one where the regime's illicit financial networks, repressive apparatuses, and entrenched Castro-era power structures are dismantled, and where the Cuban people, not their oppressors, inherit the nation's future,'" Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement. Since the administration's May expansion of Cuba sanctions, at least 86 individuals and organizations have been targeted.
If you have exposure to Caribbean trade, shipping, or energy logistics, keep an eye on two things: how far the blacklist extends from here, and whether the fuel crunch leads to more outages that ripple through tourism, transport, and payments. That kind of real-world friction can show up in schedules, margins, and even your next trip itinerary.
