The Trump administration’s hostility toward our country seems to have no end. Yesterday (June 4, 2019), the US Treasury Department added to sanctions announced April 17, and the activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, the prohibition of “people to people” cultural and educational trips, plus other restrictions on travel and transportation services, remittances, banking, commerce, and telecommunications.
According to a press release issued by the department, private and corporate planes, cruise ships, sailboats, fishing boats, and similar vessels will be prohibited from traveling to Cuba, although an “exemption” is available for certain previously authorised group educational visits, for which at least one transaction related to the trip, such as the purchase of a ticket or reservation, was completed before June 5. Civil aircraft that operate under Air Carrier Certificates or other specifications of the Federal Aviation Administration will be authorised to travel to the island.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin stated that the restrictions are meant to put a brake on “the destabilising role of Cuba in Latin America,” and that he is “worried” about Cuban support to Venezuela and Nicaragua.
What should worry him is the example of Cuba before the world, a small island that for more than 60 years has resisted the attacks of the greatest empire history has known, and extends its solidarity to all peoples in need, sharing not what we have left over, but even what we lack, as Army General Raul Castro Ruz said.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla tweeted on Tuesday that differences must be resolved on the basis of dialogue and cooperation, adhering strictly to international law, and strongly denounced the new sanctions, saying, “They intend to strangle the economy and damage Cubans’ standard of living, to wrest political concessions from us. They will fail once again.”
President Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez insisted that Cuba will not be intimidated or distracted by new threats or restrictions. “Work, creativity, effort, and resistance is our answer. They have not been able to asphyxiate us. They cannot stop us. We will live and we will triumph,” he said.
(Courtesy: Granma English, Cuba.)
