Trump signs order to tighten Cuba sanctions, targeting foreign banks, companies

Nora Gámez Torres, Miami Herald on May 1, 2026

By clicking submit, I authorize Arcamax and its affiliates to: (1) use, sell, and share my information for marketing purposes, including cross-context behavioral advertising, as described in our Privacy Policy , (2) add to information that I provide with other information like interests inferred from web page views, or data lawfully obtained from data brokers, such as past purchase or location data, or publicly available data, (3) contact me or enable others to contact me by email or other means with offers for different types of goods and services, and (4) retain my information while I am engaging with marketing messages that I receive and for a reasonable amount of time thereafter. I understand I can opt out at any time through an email that I receive, or by clicking here

President Donald Trump signed an executive order Friday that significantly hardens sanctions on the Cuban government, authorizing sanctions on foreign companies and banks that do business with Cuba.

The broad executive order expands the embargo on Cuba to authorize blocking the U.S. assets of “any foreign person” that operates in key Cuban economic sectors such as energy, defense, mining and financial services. It gives the secretaries of the Treasury and the State Department the authority to add other sectors of the Cuban economy.

Treasury will block assets owned or controlled by the Cuban government, its agencies, companies and officials. Those are already blocked under previous sanctions, but the new order also targets former government officials, as well as companies and people who may act as a front for the Cuban government. It blocks the U.S. properties of “entities or persons who have acted or purported to act for or on behalf of, directly or indirectly, the Government of Cuba.”

For the first time, foreign banks worldwide that conduct or facilitate transactions for the Cuban government and other individuals and entities sanctioned under Friday’s executive order risk losing access to U.S. dollars. The order authorizes the Secretary of the Treasury to restrict or block their bank accounts in the United States.

The decades-old U.S. embargo already prohibits U.S. banks from processing transactions involving Cuba, with very few exceptions, but the new measure will further complicate the Cuban government’s efforts to find foreign banks willing to work with it.

Treasury can also block property in the United States belonging to foreign entities or persons found to “have materially assisted, sponsored, or provided financial, material, or technological support for, or goods or services to or in support of, the Government of Cuba.”

The new sanctions, first reported by Reuters, come after a recent round of negotiations in Havana in which senior State Department officials told their Cuban counterparts that the island has a small window of time to act on key U.S. demands, including the release of political prisoners and implementing significant economic and political reforms.

The new restrictions do not affect trade and financial transactions authorized by embargo exceptions or government authorizations, called licenses, according to the executive order.

The order includes an expansive clause allowing the U.S. government to sanction the adult relatives of designated individuals.

_____