HAVANA slammed new US sanctions against Cuba as “collective punishment” today.

The fresh sanctions against Cuba, announced on Thursday, targeted the country’s Oil Industry Supply Import Company, known as Abapet, along with former president Raul Castro’s grandson Fidel Ernesto Castro.

Abapet is responsible for importing special equipment and spare parts needed to sustain Cuba’s crumbling power grid.

Brett Erickson, a sanctions expert and managing principal at consulting firm Obsidian Risk Advisors, said: “The Trump administration seems to have no seriousness to accept any change from Cuba other than a toppling of the regime.”

Mr Erickson anticipated that Cuba’s government would try to circumvent the sanctions “because they have to.”

“They’ll get creative in how they try to procure these maintenance parts,” he said, warning it would be a costlier alternative, which in turn would raise inflation and further hurt Cuba’s economy.

Mr Erickson added that he expects the US to keep targeting smaller and smaller state companies to try and push them “into a death spiral.”

The US State Department made the announcement just hours after Cuban officials held a press conference to share more details on the historic economic reforms approved in June.

Cuba’s Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez took to social media to slam the latest sanctions.

He said: “Collective punishment is a crime. So, too, is inflicting suffering on an entire population through measures coldly calculated to trigger a humanitarian crisis.

“Enough with the abuse. Put an end to the blockade once and for all and allow Cuba to live in peace.”

Eugenio Martinez Enriquez, Cuba’s ambassador in Mexico, called Secretary Rubio “a liar without scruples.”

“We will not forget his crimes,” he wrote on social media.

Meanwhile, Secretary Rubio asserted on social media that he and President Trump “are unwavering in our commitment that Cuba will be free.”