US to activate controversial article to toughen embargo on Cuba

With a change in its international politics, the United States will tighten the embargo Cuba from this Wednesday to activate an article of law that has been suspended by an agreement with the European Union.

This measure (known as Title III of the Helms-Burton Act) will allow to apply to US court by expropriations occurring in the island after the Cuban Revolution, which was finalized on January 1, 1959 with the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista and the seizure of power by Fidel Castro.

The Donald Trump government decision breaks with a commitment of years that ended a dispute between the US and the EUBut a manager who requested anonymity said that many European countries "were profiting from stolen property from Americans" for 24 years. However, in Washington, they do not fear a new international demand from the bloc of the EU.

Measurement is another step in escalating White House pressures against Havana, which is also largely responsible for keeping Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro in power in Caracas.

In addition, the United States will begin to implement Title IV of this legislation, which dates back to 1996 and restricts the entry into the country of persons who "possess property confiscated from, or trafficking in, US citizens".

The official announcement will be made Wednesday by the State Department and will be confirmed by John Bolton, President Trump's National Security Advisor, in a speech that he will deliver in Miami and New York. in which he will announce more sanctions against Cuba, Venezuela and Nicaragua.

Spain and other countries, in particular the European Union, have been asking the US government in recent weeks not to act on their threat to activate Title III of this law, which could affect Spanish companies.

This title was created to allow Americans (including naturalized Cubans) to sue in US courts. to companies that benefited from properties in Cuba that were theirs before the Revolution headed by Fidel Castro and who took power in 1959.

When this law was pbaded 23 years ago, the bloc in Europe and other countries with commercial interests on the island were fiercely opposed to it because they feared that their companies would be prosecuted at home. United States. This is why the EU has denounced Washington before the World Trade Organization. (WTO).

The dispute then ended with the US pledge to retain Title III suspended in exchange for the withdrawal of the complaint, but the Trump Government's decision breaks this deal, which is not the first to toughen sanctions against the Castro regime since the tycoon took power in the USA.