The United States imposed new sanctions on Fidel Ernesto Castro, the 31-year-old grandson of 95-year-old former Cuban leader Raul Castro, Banco Exterior de Cuba and four Cuban companies as the Trump administration intensifies economic pressure on the Communist-run island. The State Department designated two firms in Cuba’s nickel-mining industry and two active in the energy sector, including an oil import company, alongside the state-owned bank. The measures block assets in US jurisdiction and bar US persons from related transactions unless authorized by the Treasury Department. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Cuba’s leadership presides over a failed state where ordinary Cubans go hungry, blamed decades of mismanagement and repression, and accused Havana of seeking to export Marxist ideology across the Western Hemisphere. Since January, President Donald Trump has pursued a heightened campaign aimed at weakening the government and spurring regime change, combining escalating sanctions with a de facto fuel blockade on top of the decades-long Cold War embargo and repeated threats of military intervention. United Nations high commissioner for human rights Volker Turk warned in June that the restrictions were directly harming Cubans and said children were dying from lack of essential medical supplies. Cuba has answered with prisoner releases, 176 free-market measures in June and, on Thursday, 34 pages of legal changes letting private firms run tour agencies, hire without state labor contractors and ease foreign bank access for some domestic investors. Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez said the United States is fabricating security threats as a pretext for pressure and denied that Cuba threatens US national security or the US economy.