The Helms-Burton Act codifies the US blockade against Cuba – Prensa Latina

Exclusively with Prensa Latina, Josnier Romero, a specialist at the US Department of State’s General Directorate of State, emphasized that this legislation was a clear violation of international law.

“Until the moment of signing the law (March 12, 1996), the blockade was an important grouping of about six legal rules that gave the president of the country the authority to implement it or not.”

Romero explained that Helms-Burton is eliminating the unilateral possibility of lifting the blockade on the island and proving that it will remain in effect until there is in Cuba what Washington calls a transitional government approved by it.

In an electoral context, and given the situation that led to the bombing of two Salvation Brotherhood planes, which repeatedly violated Cuban airspace, Congress approved this project despite its unconstitutionality.

Indeed, “the United States government initially opposed this law because it contravenes the country’s constitution because it interferes with the president’s powers in conducting foreign policy.”

In the expert’s opinion, the President of the White House at the time, Bill Clinton, endorsed the decision to gain support in the upcoming elections for the Cuban-American community that mainly resides in Florida, known for its importance as a pendulum state.

“The law seeks to tighten international sanctions against Cuba at a time when the island was more open to foreign investment,” he said.

In addition, it intends to strangle the country economically by applying four titles promoting financial persecution, an extraterritorial lawsuit against third parties doing business on the island and also “ specifying requirements that, according to them, must exist for Cuban people to be truly free. ”

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According to Romero, Title 1, for example, imposes on the president an obligation to file accounts and report to Congress each year on how he administers international sanctions against the Cuban government.

In addition, “this document must contain a description of all bilateral aid provided to Cuba by other countries, as well as the trade that the island maintains with other countries, which indicates millimetric persecution of the largest of the Antilles in this regard.”

For this reason and others, the interviewee added, “This law constitutes a major obstacle, and in my opinion there can be no stable, institutional, permanent, irreversible relationship between the two peoples as long as this legislation exists.”

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Aileen Morales

"Beer nerd. Food fanatic. Alcohol scholar. Tv practitioner. Writer. Troublemaker. Falls down a lot."

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