U.S. toughens the embargo against Cuba
http://www.hrlnews.com/2019/05/us-toughens-embargo-against-cuba.html
Today will come into effect Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, by
which any citizen or American company, which was subject to
nationalizations in the 1960s, can go to the US courts demanding
measures against the companies, both Cuban and foreign, that are
allegedly “trafficking” with those assets or nationalised assets.
The ’curiosity’ is that in the ranks of “American citizens” are those
who, being Cubans at that time, have been subsequently nationalised
Americans.
The possibility that US courts are literally flooded with economic
“claims” and the possible affectations to fundamentally European
companies, although also from other countries, has triggered alarms in
the EU, not only because of the magnitude of the ambiguous legal concept
of “traffic” but also by the pretension of the North American
Administration to extra territorially apply its legislation to third
parties.
The measure of the Government of Donald Trump also breaks in practice
the agreement established in 1998 with the EU to maintain the
suspension of the aforementioned Helms-Burton Title in exchange for the
EU not denouncing the case before the World Trade Organization -OMC -,
nor put into practice reciprocal measures, resulting in a commercial
war.
According to Cuban government figures, its economy needs about 2,5
billion dollars a year in foreign investment, during the next 10 years,
to carry out the economic restructuring plan under way in the Caribbean
country, although in the last four years the approximate amount of
foreign investments has not exceeded 900 million annually.
The measure that the US Government has just put in place has the
clear intention of suffocating the financial possibilities of the Cuban
economy, and is preceded by the application, at the end of last year, of
special sanctions to a long and detailed list of Cuban companies, which
Washington accused of belonging to the Cuban army.
The strengthening of the US blockade against the Caribbean country
also includes the recent restriction targeting the money sent to their
Cuban relatives by Cubans residing in the United States, who can now
only send a maximum of $ 1,000 per quarter. In addition, there is the
imminent limitation of the “reasons” justifying the trips of Americans
to Cuba, a measure aiming at cutting off the tourist flow unleashed last
year, when an estimated 800,000 Americans visited the island.
The measures adopted by the US will undoubtedly have important
repercussions on the Cuban population in general given that, since the
middle of last year, Cuba has faced difficulties in paying the current
account for its imports of food and basic goods. which has resulted in
the shortage of various products of high demand and a rise in the prices
of food products. To this must be added the possible effects on
tourism, the main economic driver of the Cuban economy, and the
foreseeable reduction of the flow of dollars from the US, which largely
feed the new economy of private and autonomous workers.
Beyond the economic, it must be added that last year the Trump
Administration also reduced its diplomatic staff in Havana to a minimum,
under the argument of alleged “sonic attacks” against members of its
diplomatic delegation, which resulted in a virtual closing of the North
American Consulate in Havana so the Cubans are forced to travel to
Guyana to request the visa to travel to the US.
But the American return to old and failed policies related to Cuba
has acquired, this very weekend, a much more threatening tone when
Donald Trump himself expressed that if Cuba did not stop supporting the
Government of Venezuela the US could adopt measures to establish a
“total embargo” towards the island.
On its part from Havana, the President of Cuba, Miguel Diaz Canel,
answered by reaffirming that his country is independent and sovereign
and that it does not accept blackmail of any kind, while at the same
time denying as false the assertion of the US on the presence of
“thousands of Cuban military advisers” in Venezuela, an accusation that
nobody but the US has made.
Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodriguez, at a press conference called
on the international community to react to the US harassment of his
country: ”The world – he said – cannot afford to remain impassive while
others are summoning to destroy countries.”