The American government has imposed new sanctions on Cuba following the recent mass protests.
The incumbent defense minister and the department of the Cuban interior ministry, which is promoting the crackdown on the protests, are affected, the White House announced on Thursday.
Cuba's government called the sanctions "unfounded and defamatory".
Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez wrote on Twitter that the US should take on the repression and police violence in its own country.
Most recently, thousands of Cubans took to the streets spontaneously in numerous cities for freedom, against oppression and an economy of scarcity.
There had been no such protests in the Caribbean country for decades.
The authorities of the Caribbean state cracked down on the demonstrators, according to activists.
More than a hundred people were arrested.
A 36 year old man died in a demonstration on the outskirts of Havana.
Cuba's economy is suffering heavily from the slump in tourism in the pandemic as well as from US sanctions.
There is a lack of food and medicines.
Message from Biden
"The Cuban people have the same right to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly as all people," said a statement from US President Joe Biden.
The United States is on the side of the "brave Cubans".
"This is just the beginning - the United States will continue to punish those responsible for the oppression of the Cuban people."
Biden condemned "the mass arrests and show trials" aimed at "those who dare to speak their minds."
He announced that he would continue to increase pressure on the government to release "unjustifiably detained political prisoners", restore access to the Internet and guarantee Cubans their basic rights.
Freezes of assets and prohibition of transactions
The sanctions are based on an ordinance that targets perpetrators of serious human rights abuses and corruption around the world and include, for example, property freezes.
They also prohibit US citizens and companies from doing business with Defense Secretary Álvaro López Miera or the affected unit of the Cuban Interior Ministry - the National Special Brigade (SNB) - as the US Treasury Department announced.
The US government reiterated that it is still examining whether restrictions on sending money to the island are possible under certain conditions.
There are also plans to increase the staff at the US embassy in Havana. This is currently only minimally occupied. Dozens of diplomats and their relatives living in the Cuban capital Havana had complained of puzzling headaches, hearing loss, dizziness and nausea from 2016 onwards. The embassy staff was then reduced to a minimum.