The blockade continues intact, assures Bruno Rodríguez
Speaking during a press conference offered to national and international media in Havana, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez referred to the recent amendments announced by the U.S. Departments of the Treasury and Commerce and the upcoming visit by President Barack Obama
Author: Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla | internet@granma.cu
march 17, 2016 16:03:28

Photo: Cubaminrex
On March 15, the Departments of the Treasury and of Commerce issued new regulations that modify the implementation of some aspects of the US blockade against Cuba.
This is the fourth announcement of this sort made by the Government of the United States since December 17, 2014, when the presidents of both countries made public their decision to re-establish diplomatic relations.
We are currently analyzing their scope and practical effects in order to confirm their feasibility.
After a preliminary consideration of these measures, it can be affirmed that they are positive.
Some of them expand the scope of those which had been adopted before; so is the case for the one authorizing now individual “people-to-people” educational travels. However, it should be recalled that the legal prohibition that prevents US citizens from freely traveling to Cuba is still in force. This prohibition should be lifted by the US Congress.

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Josefina Vidal: Blockade Against Cuba is Still Rigorously Applied

Havana, Feb 26 (Prensa Latina) The Director General of the Department of the United States at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Josefina Vidal denounced today that the United States economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba continues to be applied rigorously.

In her profile of the social network Twitter (@JosefinaVidalF), Vidal reported a new fine by the US executive to a company for doing business with Cuban counterparts, an action that confirms the permanence of that policy, imposed for more than half a century.

The message shared in Spanish and English, leads to an official note of the Cuban Ministry, explaining the details of the latest sanction, the third one so far this year.

This time, the penalized company is Halliburton, a company dedicated to providing services in oilfields.

The penalty amounts to $304.706 USD and according to the report of the Office for Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Treasury Department, it is a consequence of the trade relations between Halliburton and its subsidiaries in Cayman Islands and the Cuban company Cuba Petroleo (Cupet) from Fenruary to April that between February and April 2011.

During Obama administration (2009-2016) the fines for the violation of sanctions against Cuba and other countries is 49, higher than during any other presidential term. They total more than $14 billion US.

GRANMA: The latest victim of the blockade: U.S. fines another French company
French company CGG Services S.A. received a fine of $614,250 for the use of spare parts and equipment of U.S. origin on oil and gas exploration vessels operating in Cuban territorial waters
Author: Redacción Internacional
February 23, 2016 09:02:54

WASHINGTON.—The U.S. Department of the Treasury imposed a fine on French company CGG Services S.A. for violations of U.S. sanctions on Cuba.
The company is the latest victim of the economic, commercial and financial persecution of Cuban transactions.
According to a report from the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), the U.S. imposed the fine totaling $614,250 dollars on CGG Services S.A. and its affiliated companies for exporting spare parts and other equipment from the United States to a vessel operating in Cuba’s territorial waters.
The fine is yet another example of the extraterritorial scope of the blockade and its deterrent effect on foreign and even U.S. companies, who even within the limited context of the regulations might be interested in doing business with Cuba.
According to the OFAC report, the French company’s activities in Cuban waters “caused significant harm to U.S. sanctions program objectives by providing a substantial economic benefit to Cuba.”
The fine, imposed just a few days before the visit by Cuba’s Minister of Foreign Trade and Investment, Rodrigo Malmierca, to Washington, is inconsistent with the current context of relations between the two countries and demonstrates that in order to make real progress towards the normalization of bilateral ties, the blockade must be lifted.
Since the announcements of December 17, 2014, the U.S. government has imposed fines on seven companies (four from the U.S. and three others) totaling $2,835,622,225 USD.
To date48fines have been imposedunder PresidentObama(2009-2016) due to violations of sanctions onCubaand other countries.The accumulated valueof the penaltiesis $14,397, 112,121 USD.