The United States on August 20, 2026, added eight Cuban state-owned enterprises, Cuba’s construction ministry and three officials linked to the Cuban Institute of Friendship with the Peoples (ICAP) to its sanctions list. The same week, several US citizens returning from events in Havana were briefly detained at Miami International Airport, the Associated Press reported, citing anonymous US officials; some electronic devices were seized for inspection.

The listings and the airport checks are separate actions under different parts of US law. Executive Order 14404 created the authority used for the new designations, while the older Cuban Assets Control Regulations (CACR) govern travel-related transactions. No published US government record establishes that any of the returning travelers violated those rules.

Eight companies, a ministry and three ICAP officials were listed

The US Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) identifies eight of the August 20 entries as state-owned enterprises: Acinox Comercial, Acorec, Coratur, Transimport, Consumimport, Empresa de Níquel Comandante Ernesto Che Guevara, Metalcuba and Geominsal. The same update separately identifies Cuba’s Ministry of Construction as a government entity. That official classification makes the total nine Cuban entities, not nine companies.

The update also lists Fernando González Llort, Leima Martínez Freire and Noemí Ramona Rabaza Fernández as individuals linked to ICAP. OFAC had added ICAP itself to the Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons List on June 4, 2026, so the August action extended an earlier designation to three officials.

The order blocks property under US jurisdiction

Executive Order 14404, signed on May 1, 2026, authorizes designations tied to specified Cuban economic sectors and blocks a designated person’s property that is in the United States or under the possession or control of a US person. It generally prohibits US persons and transactions within the United States from dealing in that blocked property unless a law, regulation or license permits the activity. The order also allows measures against a foreign financial institution found to have handled a significant transaction for a person blocked under the order.

OFAC says Executive Order 14404 established a sanctions program that is separate from and additional to the CACR, while existing CACR prohibitions and authorizations remain in effect. OFAC also issued a general license covering transactions prohibited by the order when the CACR already authorizes or exempts them. The new list therefore does not make every Cuba-related transaction automatically prohibited.

The treatment of Cuba’s construction ministry shows why the scope requires precision. OFAC said it did not intend to target non-US persons for transactions ordinarily needed to wind down dealings with the ministry through September 19, 2026, but the policy does not authorize transactions that the CACR prohibits for US persons. That limited position applies to the ministry and entities it owns by at least 50 percent; it is not a general exemption for every newly listed party.

Travel rules do not establish the reason for the airport checks

OFAC says tourist travel-related transactions involving Cuba are not permitted and that eligible transactions must fall within 12 activity categories under the CACR. The guidance regulates transactions connected with travel. It does not say that every trip to Cuba is illegal, nor does it identify the basis for the Miami screening.

AP reported that several US citizens returning from events marking Fidel Castro’s 100th birthday were briefly detained at the airport and that some phones and other electronic devices were seized for inspection. Officials told AP that US Customs and Border Protection agents had prepared to screen dozens of returning activists, but fewer met the criteria for enhanced questioning. The officials said all those detained were released and allowed to enter the United States; the status of the phones, laptops and tablets remained unclear.

A traveler holds a passport at an airport entry checkpoint (illustrative image)
US officials cited by AP said some electronic devices were seized for inspection during the Miami airport operation. (Illustrative image; Photo by Yazid N on Pexels)

The AP sources requested anonymity because the operation’s details had not been made public. AP did not name the travelers or report that charges had been filed. APPI News could not find a public CBP statement giving the number screened, the selection criteria or the later disposition of the devices as of August 23, 2026.

Cuba disputes the sanctions’ purpose

Granma, the Cuban Communist Party’s official newspaper, reported Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez’s claim that the US measures were intended to harm Cuba’s economy and disrupt deliveries of food, medicine and medical equipment; he defended ICAP as an organization promoting international friendship and solidarity. Those statements present the Cuban government’s position. The cited materials do not independently measure the sanctions’ effects on supplies, investment or household conditions.