Biden threatens more sanctions on Cuba unless there are “drastic changes” on the island

The president of United States, Joe Biden, yesterday threatened with more sanctions to Cuba unless “drastic changes” occur, when meeting in the White House with Cuban-American leaders after the protests that broke out on July 11 on the island under communist aegis.

“There will be more unless there is some drastic change in Cuba, that I do not anticipate”Biden told reporters at the White House, shortly after the Treasury announced punitive measures against the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) and its highest officials.

Yesterday, Friday, July 30, the United States announced financial sanctions against the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) of Cuba and its highest officials for their role in “repressing the peaceful and pro-democratic protests” that broke out on the Caribbean island on July 11.

The Joe Biden government said that the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blocked all the properties and interests of the PNR, as well as its director, Oscar Callejas, and its deputy director, Eddy Sierra, prohibiting any citizen , US resident or entity do transactions with them.

The sanctions were applied under the Global Magnitsky Act, which allows the United States to punish those who have committed human rights abuses or acts of corruption in other countries.

The Treasury said in a statement that since the beginning of the July protests, “The Cuban regime deployed the PNR, a police unit dependent on the Cuban Ministry of the Interior, to repress and attack the protesters”.

He added that PNR agents were photographed “Confronting and arresting protesters in Havana, including the Movimiento de Madres 11 de Julio, a group founded to organize the families of the prisoners and disappeared”.

In Camagüey, a city in the center-east of Cuba, “A Catholic priest was beaten and detained by the PNR while defending young protesters“Said the Treasury, specifying that police agents also beat a group of protesters, including several minors, and” violently “dissolved peaceful protests.

“Today’s measure serves to hold accountable those responsible for suppressing the calls of the Cuban people for freedom and respect for human rights.“Said the director of OFAC, Andrea Gacki, promising new punishments for those who” facilitate the participation of the Cuban regime in serious abuses. “