Trump Administration Enforces Title III
of Helms-Burton Act
Let Us Make Sure the Government of Canada Does Not Appease the U.S. in Its Attempt to Strangle Cuba!
Monthly picket at U.S. embassy in Ottawa April 17, 2019, demands end to
the criminal
blockade of Cuba.
On January 17, the U.S. State Department announced its
intention to enforce Title III of its criminal Helms-Burton
Act "[...] in light of the national interests of the United
States and the efforts to expedite a transition to democracy in
Cuba, and include factors such as the Cuban regime's brutal
oppression of human rights and fundamental freedoms and its
indefensible support for increasingly authoritarian and corrupt
regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua."
 Three months later on April 17 it
announced that as of May 2 it will begin fully enforcing Title III,
which has been suspended by every President since the Act was passed in
1996, in yet another attempt to wreak revenge on Cuba, this time for
championing the cause of Venezuela's right to self-determination, while
also using it to escalate its economic war against Venezuela. Title III
gives U.S. citizens who previously owned properties in Cuba that were
nationalized after the revolution the right to sue Cuban and foreign
entities that have made use of those properties or do business with
others using those properties in U.S. courts for damages.
Assistant Secretary of State for Western Hemisphere
Affairs Kimberly Breier held a press briefing the same day about her
government's decision. As if brandishing a trophy,
she drew attention to the fact that the Lima Group, which had met two
days earlier in Chile, for the first time expressed "concern over
Cuba's role in Caracas" in its declaration [...] and, bizarrely,
"called on the Cuban regime to support the transition in
Caracas."[1]
Also on April 17, in a speech to the Bay of Pigs
Veterans'
Association in Coral Gables, Florida, U.S. National Security
Advisor John Bolton announced that in addition to activating
Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, the Trump
administration would begin enforcing Title IV. It provides
for the denial of visas to and exclusion from the United States
of any foreign national who, after March 12, 1996, "confiscates or
traffics in confiscated property in Cuba, a claim to which is
owned by a U.S. national."
He used the occasion
as well to announce other
changes
designed to reverse what he called "the disastrous Obama-era
policies" and "end the glamourization of socialism and communism."
These included restricting travel to Cuba from the U.S., with
only family visits allowed in order to curb what he called
"veiled tourism," reinstatement of caps on remittances to Cuba
with $1,000 allowed per person every three months, and additional
sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.
Bolton also took the opportunity to remind his audience
that
the U.S. had recently sanctioned six companies and 44 tankers
engaged in shipping "subsidized oil" from Venezuela to Cuba, and that
the previous day, for the first time, one of the ships had been denied
entry at a U.S. port. He bragged about the new
sanctions being "two-fers" that hit both Venezuela and Cuba,
taking perverse delight in declaring "No more subsidies for
Communist dictators!"
The new step of the Trump administration is a criminal
act of
revenge stemming from its failure to impose regime change in
Venezuela using all the same terrorist means it has used against
Cuba for nearly 60 years that have also failed to achieve regime
change there. Enforcing Title III of Helms-Burton will
dangerously tighten even further the blockade against Cuba. It
is directed against the people in a failed attempt to provoke
them to rebel against their government and permit the U.S.
imperialists to once again control their destiny. It represents
yet another flagrant violation of international law and a direct
attack on the sovereignty and interests of third countries.
For its part, Cuba has strongly, firmly and
categorically rejected the move to enforce Title III, which, in the
words of the statement issued by the Cuban Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
"it construes as an extremely arrogant and irresponsible hostile
action, and repudiates the disrespectful and slanderous language used
in the public announcement made by the State Department." President
Miguel Díaz-Canel said the U.S. announcement "will not change
our attitude towards those who are holding the sword against us. We
Cubans do not surrender, nor do we accept laws over our destiny that
are not in our Constitution. In Cuba, Cubans are in charge. [...] Title
III is not worse than Titles I or II, that are all part of the array of
actions against all the people of Cuba. Nobody is going to make us
surrender, either by allurements or by force, the Homeland that our
forefathers won standing up."
Trump and his henchmen will not have an easy go of
wielding the new weapon they have given themselves to try to further
their unpopular cause. Strong opposition is already being voiced by
sectors inside the U.S., including businesses, who stand to be directly
affected, as well as by friends of the Cuban and Venezuelan people who
are in no mood to stand idly by in the face of this latest escalation
of the economic war against both. In the case of Venezuela, activists
in the U.S., with the approval of the Venezuelan government, are
maintaining a continuous vigil and holding educational events inside
Venezuela’s embassy in Washington, DC to oppose its takeover by the
illegitimate representatives of U.S. puppet Juan Guaidó -- a
process which the U.S. government is facilitating rather than doing its
duty to uphold the inviolability of diplomatic premises.
A number of European countries, like Canada, have
significant
business interests in Cuba. It will take a staunch stand on the
part of the Canadian and other governments to oppose what is
coming. Statements were immediately issued by representatives of
the European Union and Canada, both individually and jointly.
Canada's put a lot of emphasis on meetings Foreign Affairs
Minister Chrystia Freeland had held with her U.S. counterparts to
discuss her government's concerns with the U.S. decision, adding
that it would fully defend the interests of Canadians conducting
"legitimate" trade and investment in Cuba. In a joint statement
Canada and the EU said that they were "determined to work
together to protect the interests of our companies in the context
of the WTO [World Trade Organization] and by banning the
enforcement or recognition of foreign judgements based on Title
III, both in the EU and Canada."
It is quite possible, despite the U.S. State Department
representative saying there will be no exemptions from Title III
for anyone, that the U.S. will particularly encourage claims
against Venezuelan interests in Cuba as well as those countries
like Russia and China whom it regards as rivals with no business
operating in "its neighbourhood." This means the government must
not only act to defend Canadian interests in Cuba but take a
clear stand against the legislation being used against anyone
else as well. It will not do, for example, to stand with Europe
while letting Venezuela be thrown to the wolves, thereby helping
the U.S. achieve its aim of strangling both Cuba and Venezuela.
Canadians will stand with the government if it takes a
principled, independent stand on this matter and refuses to
appease the United States in its criminal aims.
It is a defining moment for Canada. The Communist Party
of Canada (Marxist-Leninist) calls on
Canadians to make their voices heard and to make sure that the
Government of Canada does not appease the U.S. in its criminal
endeavour on this very important matter to the future of the
cause of peace, democracy and freedom on our continent.
Note
1. In a sign that this
project of the U.S. and Canada to force regime change in
Venezuela is losing steam, not a single Caribbean country, of the
few CARICOM members said to be part of the Lima Group, signed
that declaration. Counted among its signatories, however, which
did not total even half the number of OAS members, was Juan
Guaidó's envoy, supposedly in representation of Venezuela. The
group's next meeting is to take place in Guatemala on a date that
has not been announced.
This article was published in
Volume 49 Number 14 - April 20, 2019
Article Link:
Trump Administration Enforces Title III
of : Let Us Make Sure the Government of Canada Does Not Appease the U.S. in Its Attempt to Strangle Cuba!
Website: www.cpcml.ca
Email: editor@cpcml.ca
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