The United States on Thursday imposed sanctions on a Cuban military-controlled conglomerate, one of its top executives, and a Cuban nickel-mining joint venture, in the first round of designations under a new executive order targeting the island-nation. 

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a press statement that he had designated Grupo de Administración Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), its executive president Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, and Moa Nickel S.A. under Executive Order 14404, signed by President Donald Trump on May 1.

“The Trump Administration is taking decisive action to protect U.S. national security and deprive Cuba’s communist regime and military of access to illicit assets,” Rubio said in the statement. He warned that “additional designations can be expected in the following days and weeks.”

The State Department said GAESA was sanctioned for operating in the financial services sector of the Cuban economy, while Moa Nickel was designated for operating in the metals and mining sector. Lastres was named for being a senior official of GAESA, according to the announcement.

Rubio described GAESA as “the heart of Cuba’s kleptocratic communist system,” saying the umbrella enterprise controls an estimated 40 percent or more of the island’s economy and is structured to enrich the country’s elites rather than its citizens. According to the State Department, GAESA’s revenues are likely more than three times the size of the Cuban state budget, and the enterprise is believed to control up to $20 billion in illicit assets, much of it funneled to hidden overseas accounts.

Lastres, the State Department said, is responsible for managing GAESA’s illicit assets held internationally.

Moa Nickel S.A. is a joint venture between Canada’s Sherritt International Corporation and the Cuban state-owned La Compañía General de Níquel. The State Department said the company “profits from assets that were originally expropriated by the Cuban regime from U.S. persons and corporations.”

Under the new executive order, the Treasury Department, in consultation with the State Department, or vice versa, may block the property of foreign persons determined to operate in Cuba’s energy, defense, metals and mining, financial services or security sectors, or any other sector designated by the Treasury secretary. 

The order also authorizes sanctions on those acting on behalf of the Cuban government, senior officials and board members of blocked entities, those responsible for serious human rights abuses or corruption related to Cuba, or adult family members of designated persons.

Section 4 of the order also authorizes the Treasury secretary to impose secondary sanctions on foreign financial institutions found to have conducted or facilitated significant transactions for blocked persons. Those measures include barring or restricting U.S. correspondent or payable-through accounts and blocking the institution’s property under U.S. jurisdiction.