US Intensifies Hostility against Cuba by Announcing New Measures

The advisor to President Donald Trump will refer to those actions at a meeting in Miami, Florida, in the presence of participants in the failed mercenary invasion of Cuba on April 17, 1961. He will also announce measures against Nicaragua and Venezuela.

Bolton wrote on Twitter on April 12 that the objective of the trip is to speak about the steps being taken by the administration to counter what Washington describes as ‘threats of security’ related to Havana and Caracas, ‘and the democratic crisis in Nicaragua’.

An official who asked to remain anonymous told reporters on Tuesday that the executive will fully enforcement Title III as part of its actions to increase pressure on Cuba, a step that was likely due to the growing hostility against the Caribbean island.

By virtue of Title III, US citizens might bring to court those who ‘traffic’ with ‘US properties’ in Cuba, understood as nationalized after the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959.

Given the damage to be caused by that part of the law, approved in 1996, not only for Cuba, but also for the United States and its allies, like the European Union and Canada, with interests in Cuba, Trump’s predecessors, since William Clinton (1993-2001), had avoided its enforcement with suspensions that were extended every six months.

However, the current US government said in January that it would only extend the suspension for 45 days, and it did the same in March for 30 days, but in that case, it said that it would admit lawsuits to be filed after March 19 against more than 200 Cuban companies included in a unilateral list of sanctions.

The US lawyer Robert Muse, who is an expert in laws related to Cuba, told Prensa Latina this week that it seems that the administration would enforce Title III against foreign companies that operate in Cuba.

He added that the US Government might also expand the enforcement of Title IV of the Helms-Burton Act, which allows the United States to deny visas to foreign businesspeople involved in investments in nationalized properties, and media reports ratified that it will be among the announcements to be made today.

Muse noted that in Wednesday’s speech, Bolton might also inform about the tightening of restrictions to US citizens’ travels to Cuba by imposing expenditure limits, or Cuba’s inclusion in the Department of State’s arbitrary list of countries that sponsor terrorism.