The State Department fact sheet listed the eight penalized entities, among which are companies linked to the oil sector; two individuals and five vessels linked to fuel transportation, among others.

Among the sanctioned Cuban state entities are CUBAELECTRÓNICA, whose scope is the import and export of electronic and communications products, and TECNOSIME, which provides technical and technological services.

The extraterritorial tentacles of the sanctions reached two Chinese companies: China National Electronic Import and Export Company (CEIEC) and Beijing H&C Technologies Co., Ltd.

The announced measures are applied under Executive Order 14404, signed by President Donald Trump last May 1, which allows imposing restrictions on individuals and organizations that, in Washington's judgment, would represent threats to U.S. national security.

In parallel, the Treasury Department expanded the scope of secondary sanctions by authorizing the application of measures against foreigners who operate or have operated in the manufacturing, technology, electronics and maritime activities sectors of the Cuban economy.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio justified this new turn of the screw on the blockade against Cuba by arguing that the provisions are not against the Cuban people but against their elites.

During his intervention on October 28 at the UN General Assembly, prior to the vote on the Cuban resolution that called for the lifting of the blockade and received the majority support of the international community, the foreign minister denounced the collective punishment that this unilateral siege represents.

The fuel blockade is equivalent to a naval blockade, "it is an act of war and an act of collective punishment and genocide, proscribed by International Law," stressed Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla.

Its very harsh consequences fall on people, limit their fundamental human rights, affect third countries and turn essential needs of the population into instruments of political coercion, he added.

Its effects — he noted — end up on the table of Cuban families, in a sick person's bed, in a childbirth or an operating room, in a child's food and classroom, in the lack of electricity, drinking water and medicines, in the prices of goods indispensable for life.

Cuba is not a threat! The blockade is! affirmed the head of the Cuban delegation at the annual review that met at the UN headquarters in New York.

In the first half of this year, only one crude oil ship with 100,000 tons arrived in Cuba, as humanitarian aid from Russia; compared with what was planned, 2,667,800 tons of fuel were missing.

On the other hand, the national surgical waiting list reached 100,000 patients, of whom 12,000 are children.