CUBA-UNITED STATES: Suspension Doesn’t Impress the Island

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jan 6 1997 (IPS) - The six month freeze on Chapter III of the Helms-Burton law has neither eased tension between Cuba and the United States, nor calmed complaints from Washington’s trade partners.

Cuba’s condemnation of the “interfering and extraterritorial” nature of the law have been backed by complaints about other chapters used as “instruments of pressure on trade relations,” by Spain, France and Mexico.

The United States aimed to “determine relations with Cuba through its weapon so that the other countries adopt the policy which best suits Washington,” said Miguel Alfonso, Cuba’s Foreign Ministry spokesman.

According to Alfonso, all Clinton has achieved with the suspension “is to graciously concede six months more full sovereignty to the world, under its imperial will.”

The suspended Chapter III allows all US citizens to use the national courts to sue companies or people from third countries who deal with US property nationalised following the 1959 revolution.

However, sections I, II and IV will still go ahead, blocking visas for executives and relations of companies doing business with the island.

Cuba’s government announced a meeting “Cubans against the Helms-Burton Law” for January 18 and 19, in Havana, to be attended by Cuban residents abroad who are opposed to the law.

These include those Cubans who “have gone to court, attended university events, written a letter to a newspaper or have participated in public acts,” said Jose Ramon Cabanas, head of the Cuban Residents Abroad Affairs Department.

The idea – suggested by this group of Cubans living abroad – “will be another step in the process towards the normalisation of relations” between Cuba and its emigrants, said Cabanas.

Cuba’s Parliament recently approved an antidote law against the US proposal, which includes points confirming protection for foreign investment on the island.

The Cuban law also adds it is illegal to supply information which could facilitate the application of the Helms-Burton law, adding that Havana is prepared to negotiate a bilateral agreement to pay the former owners for their property.

Cabanas said the antidote law would be fully explained in the meeting.

“It is logical that the largest delegation come from the United States,” because “it is the Cubans settled in this country who have most limitations on holding normal relations with their family in Cuba,” he said.

Despite the fact the Cuban authorities said joint ventures with foreign capital increased in number from 212 to 260 from 1995 to 1996, they also recognised the negative impact of the US law on the naDomestic Product (GDP) of Cuba increased by 7.8 percent and for this year the authorities propose and increase of four or five percent.

Rodriguez said control of capital flow in all the island’s business concerns must be reinforced as “the strthout the US embargo.

In his opinion, the external financial situation is the main problem for the sustained recovery of the Cuban economy, whose fundamental priority for this year is “the quest for financial balance in the external sector.”

“Cuba has had to resort to short-term credits with very high interest rates,” Rodriguez told Madrid daily, El Pais. “Last year alone credit to suppliers reached 2.4 billion dollars – 23 percent of the Cuban debt.”

In 1996, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of Cuba increased by 7.8 percent and for this year the authorities propose and increase of four or five percent.

Rodriguez said control of capital flow in all the island’s ercent.

Rodriguez said control of capital flow in all the