Diaz-Canel: Helms-Burton is absurd and illegal

Miguel Díaz-Canel, President of Cuba, qualified the Helms-Burton law as absurd and illegal. Its title III has been partially put into effect, according to what the U.S. State Department announced Monday.

Helms-Burton is absurd, an illegal law. You cannot legislate against the world, or ignore the sovereignty of each country. Cuba is an independent and sovereign nation that respects and demands respect. Imperialist lords should learn all at once: dignity is invincible, the Cuban leader said on Twitter.

On Monday, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Greatest of the Antilles issued a statement in which he strongly rejects the new aggressive escalation of the U.S. government and he reiterates to the economic partners and foreign companies operating in Cuba all the guarantees for foreign investment and joint projects.

At the same time, he clarifies that anyone who uses the procedures and mechanisms of the Helms-Burton Act to the detriment of others will be excluded from possible future negotiations.

According to an announcement made Monday in the United States, starting on March 19, the suspension of the possibility of filing lawsuits in U.S. courts against dozens of companies of the Caribbean nation included in a unilateral list of the State Department, for alleged links with defense and national security will be lifted.

Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, in force since 1996, allows any U.S. citizen or company to file lawsuits in U.S. courts to claim compensation for nationalized property after the triumph of the Revolution of January 1, 1959.

The presidents of the United States had consecutively suspended its application for six months, but last January, Donald Trump announced that he would do so for only 45 days from February 1, a position denounced in the Greatest of the Antilles as blackmail and part of the effort to tighten the economic, commercial and financial blockade.

(Taken from ACN in Spanish)

Written by Radio Grito de Baire