The US government on Wednesday announced sanctions against a powerful Cuban general, a major player in the country's tourism industry, the latest measure to increase pressure on the Cuban authorities a few weeks before the US presidential election on November 3.
If Donald Trump wants a second term, he must indeed win Florida.
And its base in this state has many Americans of Cuban origin who are fiercely opposed to the communist regime installed in Cuba by Fidel Castro.
Read also: In Cuba, the coronavirus crisis managed with an iron fist
The Treasury Department has imposed sanctions on Luis Alberto Rodriguez Lopez-Calleja, a son-in-law of former President Raul Castro, who is at the head of Gaesa, a powerful army conglomerate which controls part of the tourist industry. Cuban.
"The revenues generated by Gaesa's economic activities are used to oppress the Cuban people and to finance the colonial domination of Venezuela by Cuba,"
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said in a statement.
Under the terms of these sanctions, any assets of Lopez-Calleja in the United States will be frozen and any transaction with him will be subject to prosecution in the United States.
Gaesa manages hotels, stores, communication and distribution companies as well as the port of Mariel, west of Havana.
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