\n<\/p>\n
WASHINGTON — <\/span>President Donald Trump’s administration is increasing pressure on Cuba<\/a> by imposing more economic penalties on industries in the heavily sanctioned socialist country<\/a> and broadening enforcement of laws that bar Americans who visit the island from dealings with government-owned or -affiliated businesses.<\/p>\n The Treasury and State departments are announcing Thursday that they are leveling new penalties against 10 state-owned mining, metal and construction companies along with the leadership of the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples, or ICAP. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the institute is responsible for sponsoring \u201ca vast subversive network in the United States aimed at identifying, cultivating, and radicalizing\u201d Americans.<\/p>\n \u201cJust days ago, the regime attempted to use Communist kingpin and despot Fidel Castro\u2019s 100th birthday to reinvigorate this subversive network, ferrying a new brigade of international sympathizers to Havana to network with regime officials,\u201d Rubio said in a statement obtained by The Associated Press ahead of its official release.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump Administration will not stand by while a hostile foreign power seeks to exploit our freedoms \u2014 none of which are afforded to its people \u2014 by misleading and corrupting American citizens with lies, spy tradecraft, and other malfeasance as part of the regime\u2019s raison d\u2019\u00eatre of exporting Marxism, racial resentment, and Communist violence across the world,\u201d Rubio said.<\/p>\n Trump’s Republican administration has steadily ratcheted up pressure on Havana, threatening it with potential military intervention<\/a> even when mired in a conflict against Iran, while also boosting economic sanctions designed to cut off funding for the Cuban government. An oil blockade<\/a> that the U.S. imposed on Cuba after the American military raid that ousted Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro<\/a>, whose country provided Cuba with free oil, has plunged the already economically crippled island into full-blown crisis<\/a>.<\/p>\n Cuba routinely denounces U.S. sanctions and the decadeslong embargo it has imposed on the island, accusing multiple administrations of unfairly targeting a poor nation and its people merely for ideological differences and its proximity to the United States.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n