The United States has announced for the first time sanctions against Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel over the handling of anti-government protests four years ago.

The US State Department was "restricting visas" for the president and other high-ranking government officials, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in an X post on Friday.

Other officials sanctioned included Defence Minister Alvaro Lopez Miera and Interior Minister Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas.

The State Department also added the "Torre K," a 42-story hotel in Havana, to its restricted list of entities "to prevent US dollars from funding the Cuban regime's repression."

"While the Cuban people suffer shortages of food, water, medicine, and electricity, the regime lavishes money on its insiders," Rubio, who is of Cuban descent, said.

Rubio also took to X to accuse Cuba of torturing dissident leader Jose Daniel Ferrer.

'Defender of genocide'

Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez slammed the latest measures on X, saying that US President Donald Trump's administration cannot break the will of its people.

"The USA is capable of imposing migratory sanctions against revolutionary leaders and maintaining a prolonged and ruthless economic war against #Cuba, but it lacks the ability to break the will of these people or their leaders," Rodriguez said.

Also, after the announcement, Johana Tablada, deputy director of the US department in the Cuban Foreign Ministry, lashed out at Rubio, calling him a "defender of genocide, prisons and mass deportations."

The rare protests in 2021 came about after repeated blackouts in Havana and other cities.

At the time, the Cuban government said it was the result of a US media campaign and decades of US sanctions.