On January 15, 2021, the US Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated the Cuban Ministry of Interior (MININT) as well as Lazaro Alberto Álvarez Casas, its Minister of Interior, for serious human rights abuses pursuant to Executive Order 13818, which builds upon and implements the Global Magnitsky Human Rights Accountability Act targeting those engaged in serious human rights abuses and corruption around the world.
While in Cuba in 2019, Jose Daniel Ferrer, a Cuban dissident, was beaten and tortured in prison, and held in isolation without any medical attention. The MININT is responsible for Cuba’s interior security and controls the country’s police, internal security forces and prison system. The MININT was designated pursuant to EO 13818 for being complicit in, and directly or indirectly engaging in serious human rights abuses against Ferrer. Álvarez Casas was designated pursuant to EO 13818, for being the leader of the MININT.
As a result of these designations, all US property is blocked, and all transactions and dealings with this individual and entity are generally prohibited. In addition, any entity in the US that is owned fifty percent or more by a sanctioned person is also blocked.