"I refute the unfounded & slanderous US gov. sanctions against Army Corp Gral Alvaro Lopez Miera and the National Special Brigade. It should rather apply unto itself the Magnitsky Global Act for systematic repression & police brutality that took the lives of 1021 persons in 2020," Rodriguez wrote on Twitter.
Cuba also condemned US "humiliating" pressure on six European and eight Latin American countries with a view to make them share US anti-Cuban stance.
Earlier in the day, the US imposed sanctions on Cuba's Minister of Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Interior Ministry's special brigade over the crackdown on recent protests. US President Joe Biden said that the US will continue to hold Havana responsible and the latest round of sanctions are "just the beginning." Among earlier restrictions was the ban on remittances from US citizens to relatives in Cuba.