U.S.-CUBA: Claiming Victory, Clinton Suspends Helms-Burton Again

By Jim Lobe Reprint | | Print |

Jim Lobe

WASHINGTON, Jan 3 1997 (IPS) - Declaring victory in efforts to forge a multinational alliance to democratise Cuba, U.S. President Bill Clinton said Friday he will suspend for another six months a key provision of the notorious “Helms-Burton” law.

The “international community is more united behind the cause of freedom in Cuba than ever before in the 38-year history of (Cuban President Fidel) Castro’s oppressive regime,” Clinton said in a statement issued from St. Thomas in the U.S. Virgin Islands where he is on vacation.

Given the “real progress” made in the past six months in isolating Cuba, Clinton said he had decided to suspend for another six months the right of U.S. citizens whose commercial property was expropriated during the Cuban Revolution to file suit in U.S. courts against foreign companies and individuals who “traffic” in that property.

“I would expect to continue suspending the right to file suit so long as America’s friends and allies continue their stepped-up efforts to promote a transition to democracy in Cuba,” he added.

Friday’s announcement had been widely expected since early last month. The European Union (EU) adopted a common policy statement then, committing all member governments to push harder on the Castro government to “make improvements in human rights and political freedom.”

At a December 14 EU summit in Dublin, European leaders also suggested that its agreement on trade and cooperation with Cuba could be suspended on human rights grounds.

Although European diplomats have insisted that both moves represented no concrete change in policy towards Havana, the EU’s moves — as well as French President Jacques Chirac’s award of a human rights prize to prominent Cuban dissident Leandro Elizardo Sanchez — were cited Friday by Stuart Eizenstat, Clinton’s special envoy on Cuba, as evidence of a “whole sea change that has occurred in European attitudes” in recent months.

“Today we can genuinely say that it is the Cuban regime that is increasingly isolated in the western hemisphere and around the world,” Eizenstat told reporters at a special briefing at the State Department shortly after Clinton’s statement was released.

Other analysts expressed doubt about the progress Washington has made, noting that few recent U.S. legislative initiatives had raised so much rancour between Washington and allied capitals as Helms-Burton. Eizenstat, who has logged more than 50,000 air miles since August when he was appointed to his post, admitted that Friday’s suspension was “a major step in reducing trans-Atlantic tensions.”

“Clinton really didn’t have much choice,” said Wayne Smith, a former top U.S. diplomat in Havana and now an independent analyst at the Centre for International Policy here. “It would have created chaos if he did not,” he added.

Passed overwhelmingly by Congress in the wake of the February shootdown by Cuban warplanes over international waters of two civilian aircraft piloted by anti-Castro activists from Miami, the Helms-Burton law, named for its main Congressional sponsors, was aimed at discouraging foreign investment in Cuba.

Title Three, the law’s most controversial provision, permits U.S. nationals and companies whose property was taken over by Castro’s government to sue foreign companies or individuals who acquire an interest, or “traffick,” in that property. The EU, Canada, Mexico, and other countries have all attacked the law as an illegal effort to apply U.S. law overseas to non-U.S. individuals and firms.

The EU, Canada, and Mexico have all passed retaliatory legislation that would permit individuals and companies from those countries to counter-sue for damages anyone who sued under Title Three in U.S. courts.

The EU has also appealed to the two-year-old World Trade Organisation (WTO) in Geneva to determine the measure’s legality. The WTO has yet to name a panel to hear the case, and Eizenstat said Friday that pursuing it was a “lose-lose” proposition for both the United States and the EU.

Until its final passage, Clinton himself had strongly opposed Title Three and a companion provision which denies visas to the chiefs and families of foreign corporations which “traffick” in expropriated properties. The visa provision took effect last August and has so far been invoked against executives of Sherritt International, a Canadian mining firm which has made new investments of about 500 million dollars in Cuba.

Clinton originally opposed the bill on the grounds that it would create major tensions with U.S. allies and that it would clog up the U.S. federal court system with tens of thousands of potential claims.

But, worried about his electoral fortunes in Florida and New Jersey, where Cuban-Americans enjoy significant political clout, Clinton signed the law in early March. At the time, White House spokesman Mike McCurry explained his boss’ decision by noting that “Congress would have clearly overridden any veto by the president.”

When it came time for the law to take effect, however, Clinton suspended the right of potential plaintiffs to sue under Title Three for six months while he worked to build international pressure on Castro to implement political and economic reforms. At the time, he said he would continue to suspend Title Three every six months if sufficient progress were made on this front.

In his statement Friday, Clinton primarily cited the EU’s moves in justifying the new suspension. He also noted that at November’s Ibero-American Summit in Santiago, Chile, heads of state from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal called for democracy and full respect for human rights throughout the Americas. He did not, however, point to any specific moves by Canada whose government, unlike the EU, has not tried to bridge its differences with Washington over Cuba policy.

“We have been in very, very close dialogue with Canada,” Eizenstat said coldly, when asked about Ottawa’s attitude. “Canada has its own way of acting.”

The EU expressed pleasure with Friday’s announcement, calling it a “step in the right direction. We must, however, point out that the President’s decision falls short of the European Commission’s hopes for a more comprehensive resolution of this difficult issue in transatlantic relations,” said Hugo Paeman, ambassador of the European Commission here. He said the EU continues to object to both Title Three and Four.

For its part, the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF), which lobbied hard for Helms-Burton last year, noted the “recent progress” cited by Clinton, and concluded that Friday’s move was “understandable.”

But, the politically powerful group added that it was “imperative” for the administration to “take a vocal role in leading the international community to escalate its pressure on the Cuban government by adopting additional concrete measures — including a timetable for implementation and plans for increased pressures — to compel it to respect the human rights of the Cuban people.