EO 14404

Executive Order 14404, signed by President Trump on 1 May 2026, creates a personal-sanctions architecture targeting named Cuban officials and their adult relatives under the title "Imposing Sanctions on Those Responsible for Repression in Cuba and for Threats to United States National Security and Foreign Policy". The first individual designation, Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, was added to the SDN list on 7 May 2026 under the new [Cuba-EO] tag, at which point OFAC also layered [Cuba-EO] onto existing SDN entries for GAESA and Moa Nickel SA. OFAC published Cuba General Licence 1 on 7 May as a savings clause aligning EO 14404 with the long-standing Cuban Assets Control Regulations.

EO 14404 is a fresh instrument, not an amendment of Executive Order 14380 (29 January 2026), which governs the secondary-tariff fuel architecture. The two orders operate in parallel: EO 14380 targets supply-chain pressure, EO 14404 targets individuals and named entities. A second designation wave on 18 May 2026 named eleven Cuban officials and three institutions (the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), the National Revolutionary Police (PNR), and the Directorate of Intelligence (DGI)), extending the architecture into civilian ministries for the first time. Florida Republicans publicly backed both waves; critics noted the absence of a Cuba-specific tanker general licence under the order's authority.

The order moved from designation to real-economy bite with the expiry of OFAC's GAESA wind-down window on 5 June 2026. Foreign hotel operators (Meliá, Iberostar, Aston, and Blue Diamond) exited GAESA-linked properties in the days before the deadline. Correspondent banks retreated from GAESA exposure, suspending Visa and Mastercard acceptance of Cuban-issued cards. The designation of an institutional entity (GAESA) rather than vessels or individuals proved to be the operative mechanism: it cascades from a military conglomerate designation through to a tourist's card swipe in fewer than 30 days.