A rural farm in Cuba. Photo: Louis Mendelowitz. Used by permission.
By Cindy Domingo
Chair, Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issues Committee
The Trump administration’s latest announcements towards strengthening the US blockade against Cuba has been met with condemnation by nations around the world and by Cuba solidarity organizations. While already expected, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Title III of the Helms-Burton Act will be allowed to go into full effect. However, National Security Advisor John Bolton stated in a speech delivered in mid-April in front of Cuban counter-revolutionaries in Florida that further travel and financial restrictions around Cuba will also be implemented as well as other policies to further the economic strangling and isolation of Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.
WILPF’s Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance calls on all branches to contact your congressional delegation to lift the blockade and to cease this illegal strategy of regime change. We invite you to join WILPF’s Cuba and the Bolivarian Alliance Issues Committee next call on Monday, May 13 at 4:30 PST / 7:30 EST. Over the next couple of months, members of our committee will have eyewitness reports from their delegations to Cuba.
The US had waived all aspects of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act since its passage. This law will now allow US citizens of Cuban origin to file suits, in US courts, against foreign (as well as Cuban) entities regarding claims to property that once belonged to those citizens. This particularly threatens companies that have large investments in Cuba such as Spain, Canada, and Italy, as well as other countries in Latin America and Europe. While Title III is against international law, the Trump administration has made its purposes clear in allowing Title III to go forward: to create significant obstacles for further economic development and investment in Cuba, and to create economic instability for the Cuban people with the hopes that they will overthrow their government—a strategy that has not worked for almost 60 years.
The other policy changes were announced by Bolton on the anniversary of the Cuban peoples’ victory at Playa Giron when US-supported Cuban counterrevolutionaries were defeated in their invasion in 1961. These changes are:
- Further restrictions on non-family travel to Cuba
- A cap on remittances of $1,000 per person per quarter
- Increased financial restrictions on financial transactions that briefly pass through the US financial system
- Increased enforcement of visa restrictions on foreign company executives found to be benefiting from financial dealings with companies that can be sued under Title III
New sanctions again Nicaragua and Venezuela were also announced.
These actions call for WILPF branches to stop the war against these countries. Sanctions only hurt the ordinary people by depriving them of needed food and medicine. Already shortages are happening in Cuba due to the economic difficulties under the US sanctions against Venezuela; Venezuela has helped Cuba for 20 years. Over the May Day celebration, hundreds of brigadistas from all over the world, including the US, will be in Cuba to strategize on ending the blockade and the war against Venezuela, Nicaragua, and Cuba.
For more information, contact me at cindydomingo@gmail.com.