Other Five Cuban Companies Increase U.S. Blockade Prohibited List
The U.S. will add five names today, including that of the airline Aerogaviota, to the list of more than 200 Cuban entities and sub-entities banned for Americans, according to the Federal Register.
This government gazette reported on its website that the State Department will officially announce this Wednesday the new additions to the unilateral list prepared by the administration of Donald Trump as part of its policy of growing hostility towards the Caribbean Island.
According to the document, the other new Cuban subentities to join the relationship are the hotels Santa Isabel, El Caney Varadero and Meliá Marina Varadero Apartamentos, as well as the Diving Center-Marina Gaviota (diving center), according to Prensa Latina.
The original version of the list was released in November 2017 as part of the Trump government’s efforts to further limit trade with the West Indian nation and U.S. travel to that destination.
The executive established that U.S. citizens are prohibited from making direct financial transactions related to the entities included in the list, which is now updated for the third time.
After the first publication, which included some 180 names, in November 2018 Trump’s administration added 26 sub-entities and made amendments to others already on the list due to name changes, while last March it added five more.
Cuba has described this list as arbitrary, made up of a diversity of entities supposedly linked to the defence and national security sector.
The list includes the ministries of the Revolutionary Armed Forces and that of Internal Affairs, and the Revolutionary National Police, as well as companies, corporations, Mariel Special Development Zone, and the Mariel and Havana Container Terminals.
The news that more names would be added was announced on April 17 by National Security Advisor John Bolton, who in an aggressive speech in the southern state of Florida announced other measures against the Island, including more travel restrictions and limits on remittances.
That same day, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo confirmed that as of May 2, the Trump administration will allow the full application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, a regulation that ratifies the extraterritorial nature of the blockade imposed by Washington against Cuba almost 60 years ago.
Such a clause makes it possible for U.S. citizens to sue in the courts of this nation persons and entities, even from third countries, who invest in Cuban territory in properties nationalized after the triumph of the Revolution on January 1, 1959.
(Taken from RHC in Spanish)
Written by Radio Grito de Baire
