The US government announced this Tuesday sanctions against five Cuban companies affiliated with the Gaesa business conglomerate, controlled by the military, and the wife of Raúl Castro's son, Annalie Lilliam Rueda Cardero.

The companies are Almacenes Universales, the financial company Rafin, the Banco Financiero Internacional, Geominera and Empresa Siderúrgica José Martí, popularly known as Antillana de Acero, the largest steel company in the country.

Gaesa, the “financial muscle behind the repressive apparatus” of the communist regime

Rafin and the International Financial Bank are “financial institutions linked to Gaesa” in charge of “moving money on behalf of the regime,” explained the statement from Secretary of State, Marco Rubio.

Almacenes Universales is the logistics company of Gaesa, the large military-business conglomerate that according to the State Department is the main source of resources for the communist regime of Cuba and which is also sanctioned.

“Gaesa continues to function as the financial muscle behind the repressive security apparatus of the Cuban regime,” Rubio explained in his statement.

The US extends the economic blockade to people linked to the regime

Since the beginning of the year, Washington's pressure on the Caribbean island has been growing. On June 5, the State Department announced sanctions against Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel and members of the Castro family.

Alejandro Castro Espín, son of Raúl Castro, the surviving historical leader of the 1959 revolution, was one of those sanctioned. His wife Annalie Lilliam is now part of the list, Rubio explained.

This new list of sanctions implies that all these companies and people cannot establish any type of economic relationship with American peers or access the financial system in the United States.

In addition, any type of property or asset in the country is also blocked. According to the media, part of Alejandro Castro Espín's political family lives in the state of Florida.