United States sanctions General Leopoldo Cintra Frías

January 3, 2020

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on Thursday that Washington sanctioned Leopoldo Cintra Frías, minister of Cuba's Revolutionary Armed Forces.

According to the U.S. official, Cintra has committed "serious human rights violations" and has collaborated in actions to "shore up" the Government of Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela.

Through a statement, Pompeo noted that, together with military and intelligence officials from the Venezuelan Government, Cuba's Ministry of Revolutionary Armed Forces (MINFAR), which Cintra leads, "has been involved in serious violations and abuses of human rights in Venezuela, including torture or subjecting Venezuelans to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment for their anti-Maduro positions."

"The international community can clearly see how fearful Cuba is of democracy, both for its own citizens and for Venezuelans," the text adds.

The statement explains that the State Department sanctioned Cintra "under Section 7031 (c) of the State Department, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2019."

Section 7031 (c) establishes that, in cases where the Secretary of State has credible information that officials of foreign governments have been involved in significant corruption or grave human rights violations, persons sanctioned under that regulation and their immediate family members "are not eligible to enter the U.S."

Therefore, the sanction falls, according to the statement, also on the Cuban minister's children: Deborah Cintra González and Leopoldo Cintra González.

Since January last year, when Washington recognized Juan Guaidó as interim president of Venezuela, the U.S. has increased sanctions, not only against Venezuela, but against Cuba.

Last November, Cuba's Interior Minister, Julio César Gandarilla Bermejo, was designated under the same Section 7031 (c).

Previously, in September, former Cuban president and current General Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), Raúl Castro, was sanctioned, along with his four children: Alejandro, Deborah, Mariela and Nilsa.

Also in November, the Treasury Department added Cuba's Panamerican Corporation to the list of so-called Specially Designated Nationals (SDN), of the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

Action that was added to those already made in October, when the U.S. Treasury Department's Bureau of Industry and Security (BIS) announced new commercial sanctions against Cuba, which included restrictions on exports of goods to the Island, affecting the leasing of U.S. aircraft to Cuban airlines, through a "general policy of license denial."

In September, Washington included on the OFAC SDN list eight vessels and entities in charge of transporting oil from Venezuela to Cuba.

On the other hand, the U.S. Department of Transportation announced the prohibition of all flights to Cuba, except those going to Havana.