The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, his wife, several relatives of former Cuban leader Raúl Castro and five Cuban entities, escalating the Trump administration’s campaign to pressure Havana’s political and military leadership.

In an action published late Thursday afternoon, the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) added Díaz-Canel, Lis Cuesta Peraza, Manuel Anido Cuesta, Alejandro Castro Espín, and Raúl Alejandro Castro Calis to its Specially Designated Nationals list under Executive Order 14404, a sanctions authority President Donald Trump issued in May targeting people and entities linked to repression in Cuba and threats to U.S. national security.

The action freezes any property or interests in property the designated individuals and entities have within U.S. jurisdiction and generally bars U.S. persons from doing business with them. OFAC also issued new guidance warning non-U.S. persons, including foreign financial institutions, that transactions with certain Cuban military and security-linked entities could expose them to U.S. sanctions risk.

The entities designated Thursday include Cuba’s Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, known as MINFAR, the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, Amistur Cuba S.A., and Minera La Victoria S.A., according to OFAC.

Díaz-Canel, who became Cuba’s president in 2018 after being selected to succeed Raúl Castro, is the most senior Cuban official named in Thursday’s action. Cuesta Peraza, his wife, was also listed, along with Anido Cuesta, her son and Díaz-Canel’s stepson.

The sanctions also target Alejandro Castro Espín, Raúl Castro’s son and a former adviser to Cuba’s Defense and National Security Commission, and Castro Espín’s son, Raúl Alejandro Castro Calis. The action drew immediate condemnation from Havana, the Associated Press said. 

The move follows a series of recent U.S. measures aimed at Cuba’s state, military, and business networks. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in May that the administration was acting under Trump’s Executive Order 14404 to deprive Cuba’s government and military of access to assets and to target officials and military figures associated with the nation’s security apparatus.

On Thursday, Rubio characterized the sanctions as a defensive measure against an ideological enemy.

“Beginning with Fidel Castro’s program to globalize the so-called Marxist ‘revolution,’ Havana has served as a forward operating base for global irregular warfare against U.S. interests, recruiting, training, and equipping violent left-wing militants across our region–including Marxist terrorist groups in the United States–with the ultimate goal of undermining U.S. national security,” he said in a statement. “The entities and individuals designated today direct or fund the regime and its efforts to mobilize its radical revolutionary movements in the United States and around the world.”  

In a May fact sheet, the Trump administration said Executive Order 14404 broadened existing Cuba sanctions and authorized penalties against people, entities and financial institutions that support Cuba’s security apparatus, are complicit in corruption or serious human rights abuses, or provide material support to the Cuban government.

The sanctions come as Cuba faces severe economic stress, including energy shortages, blackouts, and food scarcity. The AP reported that the penalties are part of a broader Trump administration strategy to increase pressure on the island’s leadership, though analysts noted that it is unclear whether the targeted individuals hold assets in the U.S. financial system.