Yesterday, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control announced the imposition of sanctions on Cuban Defense Minister Gen. Alvaro López Miera, and on the Interior Ministry’s Special National Brigade, charging them with responsibility for the repression, illegal detention and alleged “disappearance” of “peaceful protesters” who took to the streets on July 11. Amidst charges that the Cuban government is even illegally jailing and beating minors, the new sanctions will freeze whatever assets or bank accounts General López Miera might have in the U.S. and prohibits him from entering the country, under the terms of the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act
Separately, President Joe Biden issued one of his many sanctimonious statements, vowing that yesterday’s sanctions “are only the beginning....The United States will continue to sanction the individuals responsible for oppressing the Cuban people.” As indicated in a separate White House Fact Sheet, the administration is also working with the UN and “our international partners … to collectively condemn” the Cuban government’s repression of those who “demand freedom.” Among those partners are the fanatical leaders of the Cuban exile community in Miami, described as “the best ambassadors for freedom and prosperity in Cuba.”
