The U.S. government raised pressure on Cuba by adding Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel, his spouse, and the Castro family, the clan of the Cuban revolutionary leadership, to its sanctions list.
The U.S. Treasury Department said on the 4th (local time) that it will impose sanctions on the Díaz-Canel presidential couple as well as the son and grandson of the former chair of the Council of State of Cuba. Raúl Castro is the brother of Fidel Castro, the leader of the Cuban Revolution, and has long reigned as Cuba's de facto power broker. He has been indicted by the U.S. Department of Justice in connection with the 1996 incident in which the Cuban Air Force shot down a civilian aircraft belonging to a Cuba exile group based in the United States, killing four people.
U.S. President Donald Trump, when asked by reporters that day whether the sanctions aimed to bring down the Cuban regime, said, "No," adding, "We just want Cuba to become a properly run country that can feed its people."
Trump added, "Cuba is starving," saying, "It has no energy, no oil, no money. It has nothing."
The move came as the Trump administration stepped up pressure on the leadership of the Communist Party of Cuba and key figures of the revolutionary forces. The United States has maintained sanctions, citing Cuba's human rights issues and restrictions on political freedom.