<\/p>\n
FILE – Ernesto Sober\u00f3n Guzm\u00e1n, Cuban ambassador to the United Nations, speaks to reporters in New York, Thursday, April 23, 2026.<\/p>\n
Seth Wenig\/AP Photo\/Seth Wenig<\/p>\n
Secretary of State Marco Rubio speaks alongside Paraguay’s Vice President Pedro Alliana (not pictured), in the Treaty Room at the State Department, Tuesday, Aug. 4, 2026, in Washington.<\/p>\n
Tierney L. Cross\/AP Photo\/Tierney L. Cross<\/p>\n
A man carries a pig at the entrance of a market, decorated with a mural of Fidel Castro, in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ramon Espinosa\/AP Photo\/Ramon Espinosa<\/p>\n
An image of Fidel Castro is displayed on a large screen during a gala commemorating the 100th anniversary of his birth at the Karl Marx theater in Havana, Cuba, Thursday, Aug. 13, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ramon Espinosa\/AP Photo\/Ramon Espinosa<\/p>\n
Street vendors push their cart of vegetables past a mural of Fidel Castro in Havana, Cuba, Wednesday, Aug. 12, 2026.<\/p>\n
Ramon Espinosa\/AP Photo\/Ramon Espinosa<\/p>\n
UNITED NATIONS (AP) \u2014 The United States has demanded that Cuba open up to private investment, and Cuba has passed sweeping reforms to encourage just that. So Cuba\u2019s U.N. ambassador says he wants to know why Washington keeps piling on sanctions that stymie the very economic opening it has sought for decades.<\/p>\n
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Ambassador Ernesto Sober\u00f3n Guzm\u00e1n, in an interview this week with The Associated Press, directed his question to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the main architect of the Trump administration\u2019s Cuba policy:<\/p>\n
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\u201cWhat are you afraid of? If you are so convinced that the Cuban government is an incompetent government, why do you need to implement almost every two weeks new sanctions?\u201d<\/p>\n
The U.S. State Department responded to a request for comment with a quote from Rubio saying new sanctions will continue to be announced every couple of weeks to close off \u201cescape valves that they’re trying to create in every mechanism.\u201d<\/p>\n
Then on Thursday, the U.S. imposed more economic penalties on Cuban industries, targeting state-owned mining, metal and construction companies.<\/p>\n
Cuba has been pushed to the brink by an oil blockade imposed by the United States in January on top of a decades-old embargo, coupled with the escalating sanctions. The moves by President Donald Trump’s administration, meant to put pressure on the government by depriving it of funding, have worsened already debilitating blackouts, cut workers off from public transport, crippled infrastructure and deepened shortages in medicine and food in the Caribbean island nation.<\/p>\n
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Guzm\u00e1n said the sanctions are the main obstacle to Cuba opening up its economy. He said the impact of the U.S. measures \u2014 specifically the shortage of electricity and lack of fuel to run a business or travel \u2014 has turned off investors and tourists, a major source of Cuba\u2019s income.<\/p>\n
Some companies have pulled out of Cuba, including the Spanish hotel chain Meli\u00e1, which relied on tourist revenue and cited \u201csignificant operational, legal, economic and financial difficulties” in explaining its decision to leave.<\/p>\n
\u201dLiterally, the United States has done everything imaginable to try to prevent foreign investors,” said William LeoGrande, a professor at American University and a leading expert on U.S.-Cuba relations. \u201dWhen they say, `Well, we want to see Cuba open up to foreign investment,\u2019 they\u2019re being disingenuous. … It’s not possible for them to succeed without some kind of sanctions relief.\u201d<\/p>\n
The goal of Trump’s Republican administration, he said, is “not just to open up Cuba economically but to overthrow the Cuban government \u2014 to change the nature of the Cuban political system.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Cuba announces major economic shift<\/p>\n
John Kavulich, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council, said Cuba had to make changes when it lost its economic lifeline with the U.S. ouster in January of Venezuelan leader Nicol\u00e1s Maduro.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe result is the Cuban government in the last eight months made more commercial, economic and financial changes to the country than they have as a group since the revolution,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Nonetheless, the Trump administration keeps ratcheting up sanctions, putting more pressure on Cuba, which is responding by making more changes, Kavulich said.<\/p>\n
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\u201cBut from our standpoint, there are two parts missing: One is Cuba implementing by regulation everything that it\u2019s announced, and secondly, the Trump administration allowing U.S. companies to have more access to the Cuban marketplace while these changes are underway,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The changes announced by Cuban President Miguel D\u00edaz-Canel in June aim to significantly shift Cuba\u2019s economy and industry, which have been strictly controlled by the socialist government since the 1959 revolution.<\/p>\n
They include more space for private businesses, imports and exports without the state as an intermediary, free hiring of personnel, authorization for private banks, investment by Cubans abroad and opportunities for fast-food chains to establish themselves on the island.<\/p>\n
Guzm\u00e1n said there are opportunities for investments in real estate, solar farms and energy to help ease the country\u2019s electricity shortage, as well as in marinas and the tourism industry.<\/p>\n
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Christopher Hernandez-Roy, acting director of the Americas program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, recalled that the last economic opening under President Barack Obama’s Democratic administration \u201cwas later throttled by the Cubans themselves, who feared that the opening went too far and appeared to threaten political control.\u201d<\/p>\n
Today, he said, it appears the Cubans really do want economic reforms and outside investment. D\u00edaz-Canel\u2019s economic reforms are not impossible, but U.S. sanctions \u201csignificantly constrain their prospects for success,” Hernandez-Roy said.<\/p>\n
He noted the irony that U.S. pressure \u201dis helping push the Cubans toward greater economic liberalization out of necessity, while simultaneously limiting the resources and access necessary for those reforms to actually improve the economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Rubio says Cuba’s leaders \u2018don\u2019t know what they’re doing’<\/p>\n
In late June, after the reforms were announced, the U.S. slapped sanctions on five state companies, three linked to a business conglomerate run by Cuba\u2019s Revolutionary Armed Forces. Best known as GAESA, it is believed to command nearly 40% of Cuba’s gross domestic product.<\/p>\n
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Rubio, a former U.S. senator from Florida whose parents were born in Cuba, did not appear to be impressed by the newly announced economic changes. He last month called Cuba \u201ca failed state\u201d with \u201ca bad economic model.\u201d He said Cuba\u2019s leaders \u201cdon\u2019t know what they\u2019re doing\u201d and \u201cdon\u2019t know how to fix their economy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI think the challenge that Cuba has faced for the last 15 years is they want to somewhat improve their economy, but they\u2019re afraid that if they improve it too much they\u2019ll lose political control over people,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
The United States is prepared \u201cto do what we can do to effectuate a positive change in Cuba because it directly impacts our national security\u201d since it is only 90 miles (145 kilometers) from the U.S. mainland, Rubio said. \u201cAnd we want Cuba to be prosperous. We want Cuba to be free.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Cuban ambassador said implementing the economic changes would be far easier without the sanctions, if American companies were involved in Cuba and if trade between the two countries was possible.<\/p>\n
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He said the good news is that talks are taking place between the United States and Cuba. He declined to give details of what he called \u201cvery sensitive conversations.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBut the point here is that even when Cuba is changing a lot,” Guzm\u00e1n said, \u201cthe U.S. government keeps the same policy of aggression towards the Cuban people.\u201d<\/p>\n
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