US President Donald Trump imposes new unilateral coercive measures against Cuba. In his National Security Policy Memorandum (NSPM) issued on June 30, 2025 and entitled “Toughening U.S. Policy Toward Cuba,” he announced a series of new restrictions.
The memo represents an intensified reissue of the unilateral coercive measures Trump had already adopted at the beginning of his first term in 2017. And it continues a policy that hits Cuba's most important sources of income: trade in goods, remittances from Cubans abroad and tourism.
The threat of U.S. sanctions has made many foreign companies reluctant to trade with Cuba or invest in the country. Faced with the risk of having their access to the U.S. financial system suspended or having to pay severe “penalties” to the U.S., most international banks do not take any risk. Due to the sanctions imposed in 2017, many banks have stopped doing business with the country or refuse to transfer money to Cuba.
With these new measures, the United States is further intensifying the blockade against Cuba, which violates international law. The US government thus disregards the legal principles of the UN Charter and other international principles and ignores the resolute position of the international community, which has voted with an overwhelming majority in the UN General Assembly, every year for more than 30 years, demanding the end of these measures and compensation for the damages caused.
It is no coincidence that the U.S. government is taking this new initiative during the current serious crisis in Cuba. The economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba, in place for more than 63 years, has often been tightened especially aggressively at times when the Cuban people have had a particularly hard time. Examples are the Torricelli (1992) and Helms-Burton (1996) laws, passed in the midst of the special period following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the Comecon. Thanks to these laws, the abolition of the blockade is no longer possible by presidential decree, but must be decided by Parliament and the House of Representatives. Other examples are Trump's more than 240 restrictive measures in the midst of the crisis caused by the pandemic and the inclusion of Cuba on the list of countries that allegedly support terrorism.
This terror by the United States against Cuba is aimed at inflicting the greatest possible harm and suffering on the Cuban people so that they turn against their own government, which was already the objective of the introduction of the blockade in 1962.
The Austria-Cuba Friendship Association deeply condemns the new measures announced in the Memorandum of June 30, and like President Diaz-Canel, we are certain that the effects will be felt, but they will not break the population.
We demand:
- The immediate abolition of the blockade against Cuba, which violates international law.
- Compensation to Cuba for the damages caused during the 63 years of blockade.
- The immediate withdrawal from the list of states that allegedly support terror.
- The return to Cuba of the Guantanamo area occupied by the US naval base.
Long live Cuba!
Long live international solidarity!
Vienna, July 13, 2025