[NYTr] Bush Plan for Re-Colonizing Cuba - US Tightens the Sanctiions

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

    PERMANENT MISSION OF THE REPUBLIC OF CUBA TO THE UNITED NATIONS
             315 Lexington Avenue, New York, NY 10016
               Tel: 212-689-7215 * Fax: 212-689-9073


Press Release - October 17, 2007

Implementation of the Bush Plan for Re-colonizing Cuba. 
Tightening of the US sanctions.

Despite the express wishes of the international community, the US 
administration has introduced further economic sanctions; it has
tightened the measures that persecute Cuban firms' activities and the
country's international financial operations, including those concerned
with paying our dues to UN organizations; it has stolen more commercial
brands and additional millions from Cuban funds frozen in the United
States; it has adopted sharper reprisals against those who do business
with Cuba or establish relations with our country based on cultural or
tourist exchanges; it has put heavier pressure on our allies to
subordinate their relations with Cuba to the aims of a "change of
regime" which are the driving force of its policy of hostility; and it
has escalated to an unprecedented degree its financial and material
support for action designed to overturn constitutional order in Cuba.

All these measures have been facilitated by the strict application of
the Plan approved by President George Bush to find ways to accelerate
the destruction of the constitutional order chosen by the Cuban people
and thereby facilitate the re-colonizing of Cuba and of the steps
identified in its revision on 10th July 2006, which included a secret
section on undercover operations.

Since the aforementioned date to June this year, there have been
numerous incidents illustrating the toughening of the punitive measures
associated with the blockade on Cuba. Examples include the following:


* On 28th July 2006, the US Treasury Department’s Office for Foreign
Assets Control (OFAC) added to its list of "specially-designated
nationals" the Netherlands Caribbean Bank, which has an office in Cuba
and another in the Netherlands Antilles. OFAC did not publish the
reasons for its decision. They immediately proceeded to freeze all bank
accounts it held in the United States and to ban US firms and
individuals from having any dealings with it.

* Since August 2006, "TV Marti" took to the air on a daily basis
from a new G-1 type aircraft.  The Pentagon's military EC-130J plane
continues its weekly flights. The Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB)
invested 10 million dollars in getting this project off the ground. The
OCB has hired Miami stations space to transmit Radio and TV "Marti".
The budget created by Washington for these purposes amounted to some 37
million dollars, although it is known that additional funds were
provided clandestinely to the same end.

* On 14th August 2006, the National Council of Churches USA reported
that the Treasury Department had fined the Alliance of Baptists
$34,000, alleging that certain of its members and parishioners of other
churches had engaged in tourism during a visit to Cuba for religious
purposes.

* On 10th October 2006, the office of the US Attorney for the Southern
District of Florida (Alexander Acosta) officially announced the setting
up of a working group for application of sanctions against Cuba,
composed of representatives of OFAC, the FBI, the Internal Rent
Services (IRS), US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the
Department of Trade, the coastguard service and the air- and
land-transport US Customs and Border Protection (CBP). The group's
mission is to actively and aggressively prosecute breaches of the
sanctions regulations and to bring the perpetrators to book. The latter
can incur jail sentences of up to 10 years and fines of up to a million
dollars in the case of a corporation or $250,000 in the case of an
individual. The establishing of this group is one of the
recommendations arising from the July 2006 revision of the Bush Plan.

* In December 2006, Washington sent a note to all the American Internet
service providers (ISPs) telling them not to deal with six specified
countries, including Cuba.

* On 14th March 2007, anti-Cuba senator Mel Martínez (R-FL) tabled a
bill (number S.876) aimed at applying sanctions to individuals or firms
that invest more than 1 million dollars in the Cuban oil and gas
programme. The measures proposed include denial of facilities for
export of goods, services, technology and funding, and restricting
access to contracts with the US government.

* On 26th March 2007, another senator who represents the anti-Cuba
groups, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), submitted a bill (HR 1679) aimed at
denying visas to foreign persons or firms that contribute to the
exploitation of oil in Cuba, and imposing sanctions on those who invest
more than 1 million dollars in developing Cuba's crude oil and natural
gas resources, including any US subsidiaries

Other measures designed to toughen the blockade

* On 19th June 2006, the US Supreme Court denied an application
submitted on 30th September 2005 by the Cuban Cubatabaco company to
review a ruling in February by the 2nd Circuit Federal Court of
Appeals, based in New York, regarding ownership of the Cuban cigar
brand name 'Cohiba' in the United States. This decision confirmed
exclusive title to this famous brand name on the US General Cigar
company, amounting to an illicit appropriation of the name.

* On 3rd August 2006, the US Patent and Trademark Office
cancelled Cubaexport's registration of the Cuban trade mark 'Havana
Club'. On the strength of this decision, the Barcardí company began
openly selling rum in Florida under the Havana Club name.

This decision effectively stole the famous name of Cuban rums. 
Significantly, the owners of the Bacardí company were among the
principal promoters and financiers of the notorious Helms-Burton Act,
passed by Congress in 1996. It remains the most complete piece of
legislation supporting the economic, trade and financial blockade on
Cuba.

For the ninth year running, on the strength of Section 211 of
America's Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental
Appropriations Act, 1999, Washington has kept up the momentum in its
efforts to steal these internationally-recognized Cuban trademarks
'Havana Club' and 'Cohiba', thereby depriving their Cuban owners or
their successors, including foreign companies with interests in Cuba,
of recognition and enjoyment in US territory of their rights over
trademarks or brand names registered and protected in Cuba.

The precedent set by this legislation and its damaging effects on 
international trade have meant that in 2002, the WTO Appeals Court
ruled that Section 211 breached the terms of the National Treaty and of
the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS)
agreement. It accordingly ordered the United States to amend the
legislation in line with its international obligations.

The Bush administration ignored the Court's decision. Washington's
repeated delaying tactics as regards compliance with the verdict of the
competent OMC authority is clear evidence of its lack of political will
to solve this dispute and comply with the rules of international trade.

New York, 17 October 2007