Rubio brings back Cuba Restricted List, slaps sanctions on remittance provider

By Jasper Ward and Dave Sherwood

WASHINGTON/HAVANA (Reuters) -U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the U.S. would once again restrict financial transactions with many Cuban military- and government-linked entities, just weeks after the Biden administration had sought to roll those sanctions back.

Rubio said the Trump administration would re-create the "Cuba Restricted List," which prohibits certain transactions with companies under the control of, or acting for or on behalf of, the "repressive" Cuban military, intelligence, or security services or personnel, he said.

Biden had eliminated the restricted list, while at the same time taking Cuba off a U.S. terrorism blacklist and making it more difficult for individuals to file lawsuits in U.S. courts over property seized following Fidel Castro's 1959 revolution.

Trump has since reversed all of the Biden measures, signaling a tough new stance on the communist-run island and long-time foe of the United States.

Cuban foreign minister Bruno Rodriguez slammed the Rubio announcements, calling them "unjustifiable."

"Toughening criminal measures against the Cuban people will lead to greater shortages, separation and increased emigration," Rodriguez.

Cuba had earlier this month announced it would release more than 500 prisoners in a deal with the Vatican after Biden softened sanctions on the island in early January.

But it has since halted the liberations, human rights groups say, leaving Biden's deal with Cuba in limbo as the Trump administration ramps up sanctions.

Rubio on Friday also placed Orbit S.A., a Cuban-based company authorized to process remittance transactions with Western Union, back on the restricted list, a move likely to complicate money transfers between the large Cuban-American population and their island-based relatives.

(Reporting by Jasper Ward in Washington and Dave Sherwood in Havana; Editing by Leslie Adler and Lincoln Feast.)