The US State Department announced a second designation wave under Executive Order 14404 on Monday 18 May, naming eleven Cuban officials and three institutions: the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) and the Directorate of Intelligence (DGI) 1. The officials reported across multiple outlets include Energy and Mines Minister Vicente de la O Levy, Justice Minister Rosabel Gamon Verde and National Assembly President Juan Esteban Lazo Hernandez 2 3. Executive Order 14404 is the US instrument authorising asset-blocking and travel bans against designated Cuban officials. The eleven-name roster is reported, not confirmed verbatim from the primary list, and is attributed accordingly.
Where the first wave hit the military economy, this one reaches the state itself. The opening designation on 7 May named a single official and GAESA, the military conglomerate that handles most of Cuba's hard-currency trade . Eleven days later the list extends to the interior ministry, the police, intelligence, the justice and energy ministries and the head of the National Assembly. That progression follows the architecture Donald Trump set on 1 May, when an order first pulled officials' adult relatives inside the US Treasury's reach . The personal-sanctions machine is scaling from the security apparatus into the party and government leadership.
The instrument has a known ceiling worth naming. Asset-blocking bites on wealth held offshore in dollars, and much of Cuba's leadership holds its position in peso-denominated state office rather than foreign accounts. De la O Levy carries the sharpest political charge of any name on the list. He is the minister who conceded on 13 May that the island was out of fuel and that Venezuelan crude had been cut since November 2025 , and he is now personally sanctioned by the government he had been negotiating fuel relief around.
