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.

The challenge of building a future without forgetting the past
Hundreds of people gathered outside the newly reopened U.S. Embassy in Havana on August 14, to witness the historic flag-raising ceremony, the equivalent of no longer be prisoners of the past, standing before him where the three Marines who which took place at the Cuban mission in Washington on July 20.

Author: Iramsy Peraza Forte | internet@granma.cu
Author: laura Bécquer Paseiro | laura@granma.cu
Author: Sergio Alejandro Gómez | internet@granma.cu
august 18, 2015 12:08:58

Hundreds of people and journalists from across the world attended the reopening ceremony of the U.S. Embassy in Havana.

Photo: Juvenal Balán

WHEN John Kerry stated on August 14, in Havana that Cuba and the United States could lowered the U.S. embassy flag on January 1961. To his right was Wayne Smith, a young diplomat assigned to the Cuban capital at the moment when President Eisenhower decided to sever diplomatic relations. Smith later became Head of the U.S. Interests Section at the end of the James Carter administration, but resigned at the beginning of Ronald Reagan’s presidency, becoming a tireless advocate for a change in U.S. policy towards the island. From the Malecón, three classic Chevrolets watched over the official reopening ceremony, the foremost a black 1959Impala.
History, just like the stars and stripes flag, was up in the air that morning.

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