CUBA VS BLOCKADE

CUBA VS BLOCKADE

Report by Cuba on Resolution 62/3 of The United Nations General Assembly “Necessity of ending the Economic, Commercial and Financial Blockade Imposed by the U.S.A. against Cuba

• • 1. Introduction

On the eve of the 50^th anniversary of the Cuban people’s final victory, after a long and bitter struggle for true independence, over a bloody dictatorship that had oppressed it with the support of the US government; and nearly 50 years into the most radical process of political, economic and social transformation in the history of the country, Washington’s economic, commercial and financial blockade remains in force, as the most blatant expression of a cruel and inhuman policy, lacking any kind of legitimacy or legality, whose aim has been the reversal of the Cuban Revolution by all possible means, including bringing about starvation and despair among the Cuban population.
On the basis of its officially-declared and covert aims, of its scope and of the means and actions in pursuit of these, the US blockade on Cuba amounts to genocide, within the meaning of the Geneva Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (9^th December 1948), and to an act of economic war, according to the definition established at the 1909 London Naval Conference.

As confirmed by 16 consecutive resolutions of the UN General Assembly, this policy conflicts with the aims and principles of the UN Charter, with the principles of international law governing relations between sovereign states, and with the principles of freedom of international trade and navigation enshrined in various international instruments.

The aggressively extraterritorial nature of this policy, especially under the administration of President George W Bush, is also – to a significantly increasing degree – damaging to the sovereignty of third nations and the legitimate interests of organizations and individuals under their jurisdiction

In the interval since the passing of General Assembly Resolution 62/3, on 30 October 2007, the main elements of the blockade on Cuba have been maintained or intensified, as reflected in heavier economic sanctions and sterner persecution of business activity and international financial operations (including those involved in settling Cuba’s dues to the UN’s international agencies), as well as misappropriation of Cuban trade marks, and increased pressures on and reprisals against those who trade with Cuba or form links with Cuba for the purposes of cultural or artistic exchange. Washington has also moved on to a more open and dangerous stage in the organization and execution of subversive operations, through official channels and otherwise, as envisaged in President Bush’s plan for re colonizing Cuba and it subsequent updating on 10 July 2006.

On 24 October 2007, just days after the General Assembly passed the latest resolution calling on America to lift its economic, commercial and financial blockade on Cuba, the US president made a speech clearly indicating the approach Washington’s policy on Cuba would reflect during the last phase of the Bush administration, in open contempt of the wishes of the international community.

He painted an absurdly inaccurate picture of conditions in Cuba, in an attempt to vilify our country and create a pretext for retaining his increasingly denigrated policy, and said “The operative word in our future dealings with Cuba is not stability. The operative word is freedom.” He revealed the decision to resort even to force if necessary, to undermine the resistance of the Cuban people and re-colonize the country or (which amounts to the same thing) bring about “change of regime”, in line with the aggressive, hegemonic doctrine of the White House’s present tenants.

In a state of interventionist fever and as a clear indication of frustration at what he considers scant international support for his illegal policy, Mr Bush launched a further call for accomplices in applying his strategy of hostility and aggression towards the Cuban people.

Intensification of the current US administration’s anti-Cuba political and media campaign, which goes beyond any of its predecessors, was also confirmed by President Bush’s anti-Cuba speech from the White House on 21 May 2008.

Events in the context of this strategy included a further tour of various European capitals, from 7-16 April this year, by Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kirsten Madison, and the proconsul for the virtual re colonization of Cuba, Caleb McCarry.

These spokespersons of Washington’s anti-Cuba strategy focussed their efforts on preventing the lifting of the EU sanctions, unjustly imposed in 2003, as well as on discouraging high-level visits from Europe to Cuba, and seeking to impose endorsement of America’s anti-Cuba policy in the EU-US dialogue.

In attempting to destroy the constitutional order established and supported by the Cuban people – a core aim of the economic, commercial and financial blockade – Washington has pulled out all the stops in its efforts to recruit, organize and bankroll persons born in Cuba to act as paid servants of America’s policy of hostility and aggression towards the Cuban nation. Cuba has submitted evidence, including conclusive proof, of these allegations, which the US authorities have been unable to refute.

The US Agency for International Development (USAID) has been one of the mechanisms used for channelling money to meet the payroll of US mercenaries in Cuba – operations in which the US Interests Office in Cuba (Havana) has been directly involved.

On 14 May 2008, USAID called a meeting at its Washington offices for the purpose of distributing an extra $45m that had been allocated by the Bush administration to the undeclared war on the Cuban people.

The meeting was chaired by USAID Latin America chief José Cardenas, a former executive of the Cuban American National Foundation (CANF) – an organization set up under the auspices of the Reagan administration and involved in organizing and financing various terrorist operations against Cuba. The meeting approved additional federal funds for identifying other NGOs in third countries, with a view to engaging their services in the campaign against Cuba.

Highlighting the substantial expansion of USAID’s anti-Cuba programme, the chairman reported that the budget had been increased from $13m in 2007 to $45m in the financial year 2008 – a reflection of the priority attached by the Bush administration to reversing the Cuban people’s revolution.

Washington is now cynically using its diplomats in Havana to pass on money received from known terrorist organizations based on US soil to subversive groups in Cuba, as has been recently denounced by the government of the Republic of Cuba.

In the later sections of this report, we provide updated information on the effects of the US economic, commercial and financial blockade on Cuba in the period since the passing of Resolution 62/3 up to 31 May 2008, whose key feature has been intensification of the policy aimed at reversing the Cuban Revolution. A significant number of examples of the pernicious effects of the US blockade on Cuba have had to be excluded from this document for fear of further reprisals against, or collateral damage to, foreign suppliers and other institutions which maintain economic, trade or financial links with Cuba in accordance with international law and in defiance of the extraterritorial pressures generated by the economic war waged by Washington against the Cuban people and its right to freedom, independence and sovereignty.

• 2. Application of the Bush Plan for Re-Colonizing Cuba; Intensification of the US Blockade

On 24 October 2007, President Bush gave further rein to his obsessive hostility by announcing another escalation of his anti-Cuba measures. His speech confirmed the sanctions policy and announced “new initiatives”, coupled with a call to the use of force to overthrow Cuba‘s constitutional government.

The new measures announced by the President were entirely consistent with the strategy outlined in the Plan for re-colonizing Cuba (hereafter “the Bush Plan”) approved on 6 May 2004, having been drawn up by a presidential commission created by President Bush himself with the declared aim of reversing the Cuban Revolution.

The Bush Plan was updated and upgraded on 10 July 2006. This process involved adding a chapter, classified as secret, introducing measures and actions that could not be made public since they were in clear breach of international law.

A report by the US Government Accountability Office (GAO) published in November 2007 at the request of the New York Democrat representative Charles Rangel, chairman of the House of Representatives’ Ways & Means Committee, openly acknowledged that the blockade on Cuba represented the most extensive package of sanctions imposed by the United States, out of the 20 such programmes applied to various countries.

Up to December 2007, at a conservative estimate, America’s policy of economic, commercial and financial blockade on Cuba has cost the country’s economy over 93 billion dollars.

The following are among glaring examples of the various actions taken between July 2007 and the first quarter of 2008 in tightening the Draconian blockade imposed on Cuba:

• On 30 June 2007, officials of the US Department of Homeland Security detained a consignment of medical donations at the Maine-Quebec border. These had been collected by the Quebec-Cuba Friendship Caravan and were to be transported to Havana by the 18th Pastors for Peace Caravan. According to a communiqué from this NGO, the American officials had instructions to stop everything destined for Cuba. The shipment was held up for 30 days for investigation of its presumed “threat” to US security.

• On 11 July 2007, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) reported that a US company, Logica CMG Inc., had been fined $220,000 because its predecessor, CMG Telecommunications Inc., obtained and assembled computers which it exported to Cuba, and also provided after-sales technical support.

• On 5 August 2007, it emerged that the Treasury Deportment had denied the American NGO Population Services International (PSI) renewal of its licence to pursue cooperation projects with Cuba, including the supply of ‘Vives’-brand condoms and distribution of these to groups at risk of HIV infection.

• On 18 December 2007, Senator Bill Nelson (D-FL) submitted a bill (S.2503) “to exclude from admission to the United States aliens who have directly and significantly contributed to the ability of Cuba to develop its petroleum resources, and for other purposes”. The proposals included abrogating the maritime border agreement and other measures, based on the need to respond to an alleged threat to Florida’s ecosystems from Cuba’s programme of hydrocarbons exploration and exploitation in its exclusive economic zone (EEZ).

• On 24 January 2008, the Oil & Gas Journal reported that the same Senator Bill Nelson had written to President Bush seeking non-renewal of the US-Cuba maritime border agreement entered into in 1977.

• On 7 February 2008, the White House published a notice issued by President Bush the previous day, entitled “Continuation of the national emergency relating to Cuba and of the emergency authority relating to the regulation of the anchorage and movement of vessels” extending Presidential Proclamation 7757 which expanded the scope of the national emergency regarding Cuba, to prevent the entry into Cuban waters of US pleasure craft, as a means of depriving the country of funds and tightening the blockade.

• On 22 February 2008, according to the OFAC, fines were imposed on two American concerns, Bank Atlantic and RMO, Inc. The bank was fined for not having blocked a financial operation in which the Cuban government was believed to have an interest. In the other case, the allegations concerned the initiation of a transfer of funds relating to trips to Cuba.

• On the same date, five individuals were also fined a total of $9,238.87 for buying Cuban cigars via the Internet.

• On 4 April 2008, the Department of Homeland Security, specifically the US Coastguard Service, issued new security regulations for vessels arriving in US territory from certain countries, including Cuba, on the grounds that the existing rules were not complying effectively with the antiterrorist measures. Vessels are now subjected to extra inspections on arrival at US ports and incur additional surcharges for security-related costs.

• On 11 April 2008, according to the OFAC, United Advantage Northwest Federal Credit Union Bank was fined $2,970.00 for transferring funds to Cuba without a licence. Also fined (a total of $1,898.04) were three individuals who had bought Cuban cigars via the Internet

• On 14 April 2008, according to the OFAC, the American finance company Citigroup was fined a total of $16,250 for accepting, without a licence, payments for goods sent via a Cuban firm. Three individuals were also fined: one for receiving and/or paying for goods and services in which Cuba had an interest; another for effecting commercial service transactions; and a third for buying Cuban cigars over the Internet. The fines were, respectively, $6,000, $1,063 and $282.50.

• • 3. The Extraterritorial Dimension of the Blockade

During the last year, the Bush administration has adopted new measures and regulations that make the extraterritorial sanctions and other forms of persecution even more stringent, arrogating the right to decide matters that are attributes of the sovereignty of other states, affecting individuals, institutions and firms in third countries which establish or merely propose to establish economic, commercial, financial or scientific/technical relations with Cuba.

The ongoing process of mergers and mega-mergers of international companies, as well as the strategic alliances at world level in which the United States participates substantially, have continued to affect Cuba and to magnify the extraterritorial impact of the blockade, by reducing to the minimum Cuba’s room for manoeuvre within the international economy and complicating our integration into the world economy.

This situation coupled with the prohibition on using the US dollar for trading and financial operations, and the pressures and threats from US officials designed to hinder or prevent any commercial, financial or cooperative operation with Cuban concerns from being carried out, causes a significant increase in the cost of Cuba’s activity as regards the working of its economy and ensuring the continuity of the material conditions essential to the life of its population.

In the 12 months ended in April 2008, the US Treasury Department maintained its harassment and persecution, on a global scale, of other countries’ banking and other financial institutions, aimed at blocking any type of relation or operation with Cuba. It similarly adopted measures prejudicing the right of any country to trade freely and independently with whomever it wishes, bullying enterprises in third countries into suspending their sales and contracts with Cuba.

America continues to arrogate the right to legislate for and on behalf of other countries as regards their relations with Cuba. It goes so far as to claim the authority to certify their conduct and actions. As mentioned on previous occasions, the extraterritorial dimension of this policy, which severely damages the interests of other countries as well as Cuba’s, includes the following provisions:

• US subsidiaries in third countries are barred from dealing in any way with firms in Cuba.

• Foreign firms are prohibited from exporting to the United States products of Cuban origin or products whose processing involves the use of any component of that origin.

• Third countries’ firms are banned from selling to Cuba goods or services whose technology contains more than 10% US components, regardless of whether their owners are nationals of the country concerned.

• Vessels carrying goods to or from Cuba are barred from entering US ports, regardless of their country of registration.

• Banks of third countries are prohibited from opening accounts in US dollars for Cuban individuals or firms, or effecting transactions in US dollars with such parties.

• Third countries’ businessmen are penalized for investing or doing business in Cuba; they are denied US entry visas (a policy that may be extended to their relatives) and can also be sued in the American courts if their dealings involve properties subject to claims by US citizens or others who, having been born in Cuba, subsequently acquired US citizenship.

• • 4. Repercussions of the Sanctions on the Most Sensitive Social Sectors

From the outset, the US blockade on Cuba has targeted the nation’s food and public health sectors. Actions designed to create the conditions for starvation, disease and despair among the Cuban people and thereby, potentially, for the overthrow of the government, constitute the essence of this genocidal policy.

FOOD

In the period covered by this report, the blockade caused losses in the food sector exceeding $174m. The impact was again felt in the production of food for domestic consumption.

In addition to having to cope with escalating international food prices during the period, Cuba was obliged to incur extra, exceptional costs as a result of the restrictions imposed by the blockade:

• Food imports from the United States remained unpredictable. They are subject to strict supervision and licensing for export and transportation of agricultural products to our country. During 2007, the ALIMPORT Company was obliged to freeze funds for periods averaging 10-15 days before the arrival of the goods, causing losses totalling some $30 m. The familiar obstacles are now compounded by a new regulation that came into force on 18 April requiring extra vessel inspections; these are designed to obstruct food sales to Cuba even more, by increasing the costs of the shipping lines concerned and generally discouraging these.

• If Cuba had access to the husbandry technology used in the United States, we could produce 153 million eggs more than at present and generate savings on feed of $6.8m a year.

• Chicken production and, hence, public consumption has been affected by the lack of temperature-controlled battery units and the equipment needed to operate these. Remedying this situation would result in an increase in production worth around $35.3m, guaranteeing moreover a stable supply of protein to the public and employment for over 4,000 sector workers who have been redeployed to other activities.

• The agricultural sector has been unable to buy certified high-yield seeds, recognized for their high genetic quality, from specialized US companies. In 2007, imports of potatoes amounted to some 27,652.65 tons, including 10,461.45 tons from Canada and 17,191.20 from Europe; vegetable seed imports were some 67.3 tons, from Europe, Japan and the Middle East. Seed imports from these regions can take up to two months to arrive, potentially delaying the scheduled planting of certain crops. The savings from being able to import these seeds from the United States are estimated at $177,844.65.

Cases exemplifying the impact of the extraterritorial nature of the blockade on the food sector included the following:

• Los Portales, a Cuba-France joint-venture company producing mineral water and soft drinks, was affected by a decision of its Mexican supplier of aluminium cans, FAMEX S.A. de CV, to change its aluminium supplier. The cans produced for Cuba must not contain a US component representing more than 12%, a condition which cannot now be met. This situation resulted in an extra cost of $6.15 per 1,000 cans imported. The extra cost to Los Portales during the period has been $900,000. Similar repercussions were felt by the Cuban-Belgian-Brazilian Bucanero joint venture, which had the same supplier of cans for beer and malt-based soft drinks. Its additional costs amounted to $1.2m.

• The Cuban company Maquimport had to act through an intermediary to buy equipment needed for technology improvement in Cuba’s rice industry, following refusal by the supplier to deal directly with Cuba on the grounds of protecting its interests in the United States. The extra cost to the Cuban company was some $75,600.

• CORACAN, a Cuba-Canada joint venture company, was affected from July 2007 onwards by the cancellation of its sugar import agreement (No.12-07/08) with Brazil’s COSAN S.A., when the latter announced that it had converted into a public company listed on the New York Stock Exchange and was consequently prohibited from trading with Cuba. A pending shipment of 270 tons was cancelled. The lack of supplies and paralysis of this industry for seven days resulted in lost sales worth $180,000 and additional financial charges (bank commission and interest) of $11,500.

PUBLIC HEALTH

The impact on to the public health sector during the 12 months ended in April 2008 is estimated at over $25m.

The economic damage represented by the extra costs involved in obtaining supplies and equipment in more distant markets and with the intervention of intermediaries, is accompanied by distress among the patients and their relatives, as well as the medical personnel whose scope for providing proper care of the sick is restricted by the fact that US drug companies have exclusive rights over products and technologies that are critical to the treatment of various diseases.

The following are among the cases that arose during the period under review:

• Surgical treatment of children with cardiovascular complaints was affected, as regards the application of certain surgical techniques, by the absence of particular supplies. The necessity of buying these via third parties and in distant markets involved extra expenditure of $245,072, including $1,389 for freight alone. It was consequently not possible to meet the needs of all the cases.

• Cuba has been unable to obtain suitable devices for performing catheterism and other techniques for repairing congenital defects of the heart, following refusal by Boston Scientific and Amplatzer to negotiate with our country. The results have included lengthening of the waiting list of Cuban children needing open-heart surgery, with the associated risk to the health and life expectancy of the children concerned. Those affected include:

– María Gainza Pozo, 2 years, Holguín province, borough of Sagua de Tánamo, case file No. 680689.

– Olivia Oliva Báez, 3 years, Ciudad Habana province, borough of Centro Habana, case file No. 683826.

– Félix Cruz, 4 years, Matanzas province, borough of Colón, case file No. 657743.

– Fidel Valeriano Ramos, 6 years, Matanzas province, borough of Jagüey Grande, case file No. 681080.

• The National Centre for Medical Genetics was unable to acquire gene sequencing equipment essential to its work, simply and solely because it is produced only by American companies. Its absence is preventing diagnosis and research of diseases involving deafness, hereditary hearing loss, hereditary breast cancer and cystic fibrosis, while restricting the diagnosis of a large number of mutations in the genes that cause conditions, such as Phenylketonuria (PKU), Mitochondrial Disease and Von Hippel-Lindau (VHL) disease, and consequently the necessary genetic counselling of the families concerned

• The National Institute for Endocrinology and Metabolic Diseases was obliged to turn to Asian markets to purchase syringes for administering insulin to diabetic patients, at greater cost, because of its inability to obtain these from the United States.

• The impact on the Institute of Oncology & Radiobiology amounted to $288,355. It was prevented from purchasing PET-CT (Positron Emission Tomography + Computerized Tomography) diagnostic imaging equipment, which provides modern oncology with the best image quality and accuracy of physiological data. There are currently three manufacturers of this technology in the world; Washington bans all of them from offering their products to Cuba.

• The Cuban public was affected when Germany’s Siemens refused to repair an installed gamma camera – high-technology equipment of great value in oncology and research. The company advised that the replacement parts were of US origin and it lacked the necessary export licence from the American authorities.

• The US Saint-Jude company’s refusal to supply prosthetic valves, following pressure from the Treasury Department, continues to impact not only surgery but work in haemodynamics as well, affecting also patients needing pacemakers.

• Academic exchange between Cuba and the United States has been inhibited by denial by the US authorities of the visa applications of Cuban medical professionals. In the period under review, over 30 such applications by Cuban specialists were denied, preventing them from attending various conferences, experience-exchange gatherings and similar events in America. There are also measures that prevent access to scientific reference material and similar documents. Cuba was denied membership of the American Society for Microbiology

• The prestigious Pedro Kouri Institute of Tropical Medicine has encountered serious problems in diagnosing encephalitis arising from West Nile Virus infection, a disease primarily spread by migratory birds. The US Fisher and Sigma companies refused to supply the Institute with an incubator and the mineral oil needed for the relevant research. Similarly, another American company, Biograd, refused to sell to Cuba equipment for applying the pulsed-field electrophoresis method, for epidemiological molecular monitoring Salmonella, Escherichia coli, Shigella and Vibrio cholerae bacteria, responsible for severe infections.

• Cuba’s anti-HIV/AIDS programme has been hampered by refusal on the part of American companies to supply equipment for the technique of diagnosis and treatment of the HIV-positive and the ill.

• The blockade prevents US manufacturers of pesticides, fumigation equipment and medical entomology aids from dealing with Cuba. This means that the pesticides and other supplies vital to the relevant activities have to be sought in other markets, pushing up the costs, largely because of higher freight charges and commissions. Fumigation equipment purchases during the period totalled $450,000, spare parts for fumigation equipment $85,000 and pesticides $370,000. The same purchases in the US markets would have cost around $750,000 less, in terms of prices, transport, freight, commissions and delivery periods.

Cases in the public health sector exemplifying the extraterritorial nature of the sanctions included the following:

• For fear of fines, Japan’s Hitachi refused to supply an ultracentrifuge on the grounds that it included US components. The equipment is needed for performing Western blot diagnostic testing, which is essential to the detection of HIV/AIDS.

• GH (growth hormone) ceased to be available from Sweden’s Pharmacia when the firm was acquired by an American company. The substance is used in paediatric endocrinology to treat short stature caused by a deficit of this hormone.

• Cuba was prevented from obtaining some 3 million disposable syringes (value $256,000) via the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization (GAVI) for the country’s child vaccination programme; the suppliers said they were unable to sell them if their final destination was Cuba.

• As recently as 4 June 2008, Merck S.A. announced that Whatman, a British company, had been acquired by the American GE Healthcare, and it had been advised by the latter that it was strictly forbidden to sell Whatman products to Cuba. The letter from the US company added that they had cancelled all outstanding orders from their customers in Cuba and terminated completely their operations relating to Whatman products.

OTHER SECTORS OF SOCIAL IMPORTANCE

Education and culture

The education and culture sectors have been hit particularly hard by the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed on Cuba by the United States.

EDUCATION

Despite the Cuban government’s enormous efforts to provide high-quality education for all, without exclusion, and to guarantee the opportunity for permanent academic advancement to the entire population, the blockade remains a serious obstacle to the development of the sector. Examples of the impact include the following:

• The system suffers severe restrictions, from the primary to the higher levels, in providing the basic educational facilities and the laboratory supplies and equipment needed, because of difficulties created by the blockade in obtaining these on the international market.

• Particularly hard hit by the sanctions are occupational education and the special schools for the handicapped. In the latter case, there is lack of diagnostic, computing and teaching aids, which are largely American-made. In similarly short supply are consumables, spare parts and other items manufactured by US concerns or their subsidiaries in other countries. Among the establishments affected are the 16 special schools for deaf children and 5 kindergartens which need specialized equipment for hearing development. Each of theses needs a listening booth and two language VDUs for individual compensatory corrective working.

• Around 2,230 children with physical/motor limitations treated on an outpatient basis are without computer equipment marketed by firms with US patents, such as intelligent keyboards, touch-screen monitors and switches, among other devices. Neither has it been possible to obtain wheelchairs for children who need them, because the American companies concerned refuse the orders. This was the fate of an order placed via http://www.spinlife.com. Most of the firms technically equipped to respond to special educational needs, such as WPPISI, WAIS and Grace Arthur are of US origin. Cuban children have no access to their products.

• Modern teaching methods involve the intensive use of computers, with a minimum ratio of one computer to 10 pupils. In Cuba’s case, the financial limitations created by the blockade mean that we have to work with a ratio of 1:33.

• The inability to buy supplies in the US market, or from American subsidiaries elsewhere, for the 2008/09 academic year, results in our having to turn to more distant sources, at an extra cost in transport alone of $2,505,600.

• The blockade blocks our access to basic IT products, such as databases, bibliographies and internet-based computing services needed for a higher-quality and more efficient teaching process and better pupil preparation. Attendance by Cuban teachers and researchers at scientific events and postgraduate courses is restricted, as in the case of Dr Julia Noda Gómez, who was excluded – by virtue of the blockade’s extraterritorial provisions – from a training workshop on detection and monitoring of avian influenza.

• The impossibility of effecting banking transactions between Cuba and the United States has affected attendance by American students on various postgraduate courses at Cuban universities. The University of Havana alone has incurred losses exceeding $1.5m following suspension of courses in Spanish, the arts and literature, history and economics, attended for several years by American students.

CULTURE

Cuban culture has not escaped the adverse effects of Washington’s blockade policy. The tightening of these measures has resulted in depriving both Cuban and US citizens from enjoyment of the best in artistic and literary expression in both countries.

• In the cultural sphere, musicians, painters, sculptors, ballet dancers and theatrical performers, among others, have been prevented from exhibiting or auctioning their works or presenting their shows on American soil or selling their records or books, despite the exceptional quality and international recognition of these. Those who have performed there have been unable to collect their fees or the prizes awarded by prestigious institutions; those entitled to royalties have been similarly treated.

• The Cuban EGREM and Bis Music companies cannot deal directly with American customers in putting Cuban music – of world-class quality – on the American market, for fear on the part of the businessmen concerned that they would be prosecuted under the blockade legislation. This means that Cuba has to market its product via third countries, increasing the costs involved by 20%.

• Cuba’s film industry cannot distribute its products by satellite – nowadays much used as the basis for selling films and other items – because (among other things) America is the near-total owner of the technology. The sales revenue foregone as a result of this situation amounts to $5m, which would otherwise be used to improve the operation of the 358 cinemas, 174 video centres and 160 video libraries needing to buy projection equipment, sound systems, audiovisual signal transmission equipment and the related spare parts, VHS and DVD reproduction equipment, movie theatre front stalls and carpets, currently obtained in Europe at higher prices. To quote a single example, a video projector costing $3,000 in the United States costs $5,000 in Europe.

• In the first half of April 2008, the US authorities denied visa applications by film director Juan Carlos Tabío and actor Luis Alberto Garcia, who had planned to attend the ‘Havana’ film festival in New York, where they were to be honoured for their work. Other cases similarly involved prestigious Cuban performers, denied visas to attend the Chicago Latino Film Festival, the Sundance Film Festival, the Los Angeles Latino International Film Festival and other important international events

• Peter Nadin, a New York based Anglo-American artist, was compelled by the blockade legislation, on the opening of an exhibition of his work (“El Primer Trazo”) in Havana, to ship his paintings via Canada, at an extra cost of $5,000. The US Treasury Department delayed issue of the artist’s travel permit, such that he was unable to be present at many of the exhibitions of his work.

TRANSPORT

The Cuban state has launched an extensive programme of recovery in the transport sectors, whose direct results are already apparent to the Cuban public and are reflected in the national economy. However, despite the government’s efforts and determination, the blockade continues to hamper redevelopment of this sector.

Examples of the impact on the sector include the following:

• Non-availability of the parts and components needed for repairing Cuban locomotives, the vast majority of which are US made, has inhibited goods transport by rail. During the period under review, shortage of operational locomotives caused the cancellation of 280 journeys and failure to move some 250,000 tons of goods. While the economic impact on the rail company was substantial, the main sufferer was the public, since the bulk of the goods concerned were ‘basic shopping basket’ goods destined for consumer.

• Delays in the commercial operations involved in obtaining spare parts, caused by having to seek intermediaries and resort to distant markets, resulted in the METROBUS system experiencing a shortfall in passengers transported of over 19 million during 2007/08.

• Extra expenditure in the transport sector attributable to the blockade totalled over $70m. This figure reflects higher import prices associated with market relocation amounting to nearly 18 million, additional country-risk financing costs of 5 million, extra freight and insurance costs of $21m, tying up of additional funds amounting to $18m in inventories, and financial expense in the form of losses on foreign exchange and extra financing costs totalling around $8m.

• An example of the extraterritorial application of the sanctions policy in the transport sector is provided by the measures taken against the P&O Nedlloyd (former customer) and the French CMA-CGM shipping lines, involving the seizure of funds amounting to, respectively, $56,000 and $500,000 for having effected transactions in dollars with the Havana container terminal.

• • 4.1. Repercussions of the Sanctions on the Cuban Economy in the International Markets

From the outset, application of the sanctions policy has aimed at depriving Cuba of its export revenues from goods and services, preventing or obstructing the country’s access to external funding sources, and increasing Cuba’s costs – either from having to pay higher prices or from inability to access nearby markets. In the latter case, this involves higher transport costs or ties up more funds in inventories, given the country’s geographically larger trading area.

During the period, action was stepped up against all of Cuba’s trading and banking operations worldwide, demonstrating that the blockade is very far from being a bilateral issue, as Washington claims.

The impact on exports of goods and services in 2007 is estimated at $1,745.6m. This figure reflects the traditional exports to that market blocked by the blockade, such as agricultural products, vegetables, fruit, coffee, honey, fish, shellfish and other seafood, tobacco leaf and finished tobacco products, sugar and derivatives, rum, minerals and other products; the estimate allows for availability, the levels of importation and consumption of the products and services and the share of that market which Cuban products could capture.

The geographic relocation of trade and of markets which has been forced on Cuba and the damage to the economy caused by the extraterritorial dimension of Washington’s policy are reflected in extraordinary costs in Cuba’s foreign trade. The impact was around $956.2m, including the effect of the higher prices paid, extra expenditure on freight and insurance, excessive tying up of funds in larger inventories and reserves, more onerous terms for financing and losses on foreign exchange resulting from US pressures on banks, as well as the ban on using dollars for the country’s transactions.

During this period, Washington’s policy has focussed on obstructing Cuba’s monetary and financial operations, preventing the use of the dollar in transactions and blocking access to sources of financing. Being obliged to use other foreign currencies, the country is incurring exceptional costs resulting from exchange-rate fluctuations and additional banking costs (double forex charges).

Examples include the case of a Cuban bank which obtained loans from a European institution denominated in US dollars but repayable in euros. The total repayments effected over 12 months increased by 0.14% as a result of the double currency conversion.

The period covered by this report has basically been marked by declining opportunities for using our correspondent banks. This has involved withdrawing certain of their functions, because of the need – at the drop of a hat – to find new routes for transactions with the outside world, on top of the existing restrictions on using the US dollar as a payment medium.

There is a growing tendency among foreign banks and other financial institutions to deny confirmation of or notify letters of credit, maintain relations with Cuban banks or even conduct routine operations involving small sums. Some foreign banks have started asking for proof of origin of funds for every transfer effected by Cuban concerns.

Banks and other financial institutions with a substantial presence in the United States are worried at the prospect of reprisals by the US authorities, which ask for information about their dealings with Cuba in seeking to hinder access to the bond trading platforms.

A factor that reinforces the blockade on Cuba in the financial arena and reveals its extraterritorial nature is the measure adopted on 25 June 2007 by the US stock market regulator, the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), which published on its website a blacklist of foreign firms that deal with the five countries classified by the State Department as “State sponsors of terrorism” among which, for well-known reasons of political manipulation, Cuba is included.

The list identified 28 Cuban companies, mostly in the banking, oil, communications, biotechnology and civil aviation sectors. The SEC website also has links to the information that each of the companies has declared regarding its relations with Cuba.

The following are examples of the ways that the blockade obstructs the flow of Cuban organizations’ operations via the banks belonging to the national banking and financial system:

• On 27 June 2007, it was reported that the Milan branch of Banca Antonveneta had received instructions from its head office to block any transfers to Cuba in any currency. Two days previously, the same bank had frozen a transfer of 41,000 euros from the Milan office of the Cuban tourist representation firm Cubanacán.

• On 29 August 2007, the Financial Times reported that some 40 foreign banks were being investigated by the US Treasury and Justice Departments for alleged breaches of the US regulations on Cuba and other sanctioned countries. The paper did name the banks concerned, but commented that they were mostly European and that the fines they were to pay were being negotiated.

• On 1 November 2007, shortly after its acquisition by the Bank of America’s Canadian subsidiary, the Canadian finance-sector concern CU Electronic Transaction Services (CUETS) announced that its MasterCard credit cards could not be used in Cuba, North Korea, Burma, Iran or the Sudan, as part of the economic sanctions imposed by Washington.

Section 211 of the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999 and the new hostilities affecting Cuban brands

Section 211 of America’s Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999 has been used by Washington as the basis for actions designed to steal the internationally-recognized Cuban Havana Club and Cohiba brand names. The results include denying the Cuban owners or their successors (including foreign companies with interests in Cuba) recognition and exercise in the United States of their rights over trademarks or brands registered and protected in Cuba.

The persistence of this legislation and the measures under it adopted by the US administration has negative implications not only for the Cuba-US bilateral framework but also affect multilaterally-accepted accords. Its damaging effects on international trade led in 2002 to a WTO Appeals Court ruling that Section 211 breaches the “National Treatment and Most Favoured Nation Treatment Principle” and that of the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement. It accordingly requested the United States to amend the legislation in line with its international obligations.

The Bush administration continues to ignore the Court’s decision. Washington’s repeated delaying tactics as regards compliance with the verdict of the competent WTO authority is clear evidence of its lack of political will to solve this dispute and comply with the rules of international trade. A precedent with unpredictable consequences – for intellectual property rights relating to trade – has been set.

• 4.2. Impact on Other Sectors of the Cuban Economy

The tourist industry, given its significance to the Cuban economy, remains a prime target for actions outlined in the Bush Plan. In this period, revenues foregone as a result of these activities are estimated at around $1,419.4m.

Perhaps the best-known example is that of the English travel agent Steve Marshall, who lives in Spain and sells vacations to Europeans planning to visit tropical locations, including Cuba. In October 2007, around 80 of his websites suddenly stopped working, as a result of US government action. The Treasury Department claimed that the firm (eNom) had failed to act in accordance with the law; since the agency helped US citizens evade the restrictions on travel to Cuba, and were a source of revenue for the Cuban regime.

Websites closed as a consequence of the blockade include http://www.cuba-hemingway.com (literary), http://www.cuba-havanacity.com (Cuban history and culture) and others offering advisory and other services to Italian and French visitors, such as http://www.ciaocuba.com and www.bonjourcuba.com.

According to a statement by the American Society of Travel Agents (ASTA) to the International Trade Commission (ITC), without the ban on travel to Cuba by US citizens, Cuba could receive in the short term 1.3 million holidaymakers and half a million cruise passengers. Other market studies by US travel firms and others linked to the air-transport sector estimate that lifting the blockade would, within a few years, boost the annual inflow of American visitors to Cuba to over 5 million.

A typical feature of the present stage is the way OFAC is clamping down on on-line business in Cuban tourist services – flight bookings, accommodation, aircraft charters, cruises and nautical tourism.

It reported that the popular Travelocity.com American web-based travel agency was fined $182,750 for breaching the blockade on Cuba 1,458 times between 1998 and April 2004. Without the necessary licence, it had arranged travel and accommodation services relating to trips to Cuba, in which the Cuban government or Cuban citizens had interests.

In response to new measures approved by the Department of Homeland Security as part of a flight-safety programme, since October 2007 the Canadian airlines that overfly US territory have been required to provide, 72 hours in advance, personal details of all the passengers who cross US territory on flights to Cuba or otherwise. This measure steps up the persecution of American citizens and Cuban-born residents planning to visit Cuba.

Also at the beginning of 2008, OFAC intensified pressures on the Boeing Corporation, as a result of which the latter threatened the Air Europe airline with withdrawing essential services if it continued to lease its aircraft to Cuba’s Cubana de Aviación. Given the consequences of such a step for its business, Air Europe decided to suspend its dealings with the Cuban airline as regards leasing and other flight operations. This action affected a number of travellers from Spain, the UK and France, and cost the Cuban tourist industry in excess of $2m in losses.

On 14 February 2008, the AIU Insurance Company in Japan, acting on instructions from its US head office, notified its customers of the exclusion of a group of countries, including Cuba, from its foreign-travel cover. The move affected the volume of Japanese visitors to Cuba, reflecting the consequent increases in premiums and in the prices of package holidays.

After supplying motors for fishing and tourism-related activities in Cuba for 20 years, Japan’s Yamaha has discontinued such sales and even refuses to supply spares for the existing motors, citing the blockade regulations.

One of the main repercussions on Cuba’s fishing industry remains the inability to access the US market, one of the worlds largest for seafood. The impact on the industry in the period under review alone amounted to $4,886,900.

If Cuba had been able, during the period considered, to place its sales of lobster tails and prawns on the American market, it would have saved $401,500 on customs duties alone. In the US market, these products are duty-free, while in Europe and Canada, duty is payable at 4.3-5.0%.

Adverse effects were felt also in the spheres of scientific research, technological investment and product quality control. Cuba has no access to the instruments and mechanism for monitoring food-safety systems based on HACCP (Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points) supplied by the US concern NEOGEN, and is obliged to turn to other suppliers in distant markets or adopt more expensive control procedures.

Blockade-related losses in Cuba’s sugar industry amounted to some $113.5m. Certain of the factors impinging on this sector are enumerated below:

• Being excluded from America’s preferential sugar market (New York Contract No.14 applicable to US imports under the preferential scheme), Cuba is obliged to price its sugar below that set by the contract mentioned. Adjusted to reflect Cuba’s actual production figures, the impact amounts to some $27m.

• American companies and their foreign subsidiaries refuse to supply Cuba with herbicides needed for pre-emergency or early post-emergency control of weeds at the shoot stage, for sugar-cane cultivation. We are consequently obliged to buy herbicides like Plateau GD-70 (Imazapic) in much more distant markets.

• The Cuban import company AZUIMPORT ordered CNC lathes and machining centres from Japan’s Yamazaki Mazak Corporation with a view to improving product quality. The Japanese company passed the order on to its parent company Mazak Corporation based in the United States. The reply was that no Mazak Corporation product or service could be supplied while Washington maintained its blockade on Cuba.

As part of its activities aimed at benefiting the public at large, the Cuban government is in the throes of major construction works, including repair, remodelling and extension of hospitals and schools, and building and repair of dwellings and roads. The blockade precludes steady supply of the materials, equipment and spare parts needed for implementation of these programmes.

In the 12 months to April 2008 alone, the impact of the sanctions on the house-building programme was around $22m. With that sum, Cuba could have built another 3,646 houses or refurbished about 7,600.

The GIMAC industrial group, whose mission is manufacturing and selling equipment, products and services for the building trade, incurred excess costs of $79,344 on freight charges, caused by having to purchase 58 containers of PVC resin in remote markets. With that sum, it could have bought another 40 tons of PVC – enough to produce 270 km of electrical sheathing for the construction of 10,000 homes.

The marketing company IMECO, which imports building materials and related products, has been compelled by the blockade to purchase in more distant markets, involving extra costs of some $15.3m.

The purchase of special cloths used in the manufacture of asbestos-cement tiles (required for house-building and repairing storm damage) became impossible when the Austrian supplier Huyck Wagner announced that it was a subsidiary of the American Xerium group, whose regulations banned the company from exporting to Cuba.

KOMATSU in Brazil refused Cuba’s order for a large number of items of plant for works on the Autopista Nacional motorway. In compliance with the extraterritorial regulations of the blockade, it replied that as it was a subsidiary of a US concern, it could not sell to Cuba.

Similarly, a trading transaction concerned with the purchase of Dynapac compactors – versatile machines used in building operations for filling and levelling the terrain – could not be completed despite having been finalized. The European supplier advised that they could not be supplied since they were equipped with engines manufactured by Cummins, an American company. Other manufacturers then had to be identified, causing delay and disruption to the works concerned.

The impact on the iron & steel industry is calculated at over $69m.

ACINOX, the largest manufacturer of corrugated steel rods and steel billets and derivatives for the construction industry, incurred losses of around $6.7m through inability to access the US market and the need to use currencies other than the US dollar for its trading transactions. With this sum, it could have produced over 27,800 tons of corrugated rods, enough for the construction of some 18,533 apartments in multi-occupation blocks, corresponding to 25.7% of the building plan for the benefit of over 74,000 Cubans.

The Spanish companies ZIV P+C and Chemetall refused orders from Antillana de Acero and ALCUBA for, respectively, a ZIV Multifunctional Digital Protection System and chemicals for pre-treatment of galvanized steel profiles. In both cases, the explanation was licensing difficulties for non-European products caused by the blockade on Cuba; they could not afford problems with their non-European suppliers, they said.

Development of Cuban agriculture, a sector of vital importance in guaranteeing the food security of our people, was severely affected by the US sanctions. Examples of the disruption suffered are enumerated below:

• The National Centre for Health in Agriculture (CENSA) cannot purchase components or consumables made by Amersham Biosciences, owned by General Electric, for equipment it uses for processing samples in diagnosing avian influenza. It entered into a total of three agreements for the purpose, all of which were blocked by General Electric on discovering that the goods were for Cuba.

• The nuclear techniques laboratory at the Agricultural Research Institute had to be closed down, given the impossibility of obtaining certain specialized equipment. This means that Cuba cannot conduct physiological and genetic tests on plants tolerant of abiotic stress, which would enable new, higher-yield crop varieties to be grown under marginal conditions. Cuba is now obliged to buy hybrid seeds at a much higher cost, thereby making food production more expensive

Development of science, technology and the environment does not escape the impact of this criminal policy. Confirmation of this is provided by the following examples:

• On 6 December 2007, CNN announced the winners of the prestigious “CNN Heroes” award in the ‘Defending the Planet’ category. Out of 7,000 participants in 93 countries, Cuban citizen Irania Martínez García won one of the awards. She had mobilized members of her community in Guantánamo province to transform an urban garbage dump into a recycling centre and nursery for trees, vegetables and other plants. The blockade prevented her from attending the award ceremony or receiving the $10,000 prize money.

• The financial restrictions imposed on Cuba by the US blockade resulted in the freezing of a first payment of $4,500 to the Centre for Environmental Studies & Services in Villa Clara province, in respect of a sponge-cultivation project financed by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) via the Caribbean Environment Programme (CEP-CARSU). This first payment was ordered by UNEP’s Nairobi office, from Morgan Bank in New York.

• Cuba’s Institute for Scientific & Technological Information (IDICT) was severely affected, by being denied access to the Academic Search Premier Database – a facility set up in 1996 as an extensive, central database for researchers in scientific, technological and medical spheres – with its electronic books published by Taylor & Francis.

• There were serious difficulties during the period under review in arranging visas for Cuban specialists invited to attend international events held in the United States or Puerto Rico. In some cases, visas were denied, while in others there was simply no response to the application. During the period, eight specialists from the Environment Agency and two from the Cuban Academy of Sciences were prevented from participating at events in territories under US jurisdiction.

Extraterritorial effects of the sanctions were felt in this sphere also. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) advised that its technical cooperation programme with Cuba was compromised, in that the specialized equipment is supplied by US companies. Similarly, it is extremely difficult to obtain visas for Cuban citizens to attend training course and meetings on American soil.

There were numerous examples of the application of the blockade in the world of sport also:

• Cuban sports medicine suffered an impact of around $492,000 in respect of equipment out of service and lack of replacement parts for equipment. Cuba was denied the right to carry out equipment repairs that would have enabled better care of its sportsmen and women.

• The diving discipline requires two springboards and two bases for the preparation of competitors destined for the 2008 Beijing Olympics. Refusal by American firms to supply these obliged Cuba to obtain them from Mexico’s Carimex at a total extra cost of $23,653 compared with US prices.

• The purchase of 4 judo scoreboards, similarly needed for preparing the Cuban team for the Olympics, was cancelled even after they were ready for loading for shipment. This happened because the supplier, Dehaven, became aware that their final destination was Cuba.

The impact of the US blockade on Cuba’s civil aviation sector between May 2007 and 15 April 2008 is estimated at $197.6m. Examples of the events contributing to this situation are noted blow:

• In August 2007, a consignment of replacement parts ordered by a Cuban sector company for centralized air-conditioning systems (‘chillers’) installed in Terminal 3 at Havana’s José Martí international airport was seized at Montreal airport (Canada). The Canadian customs adopted the view that under the Helms-Burton Act, Cuba could not purchase equipment or parts with US-made components. The chillers are York brand, manufactured in the United States.

• The acquisition by Cuba of new and more efficient aircraft has been obstructed by Washington throughout the entire blockade period. Even non-American concerns that employ US technology are banned from selling this type of equipment to Cuba. The results have included obliging Cuba’s national airline (Cubana de Aviación) to continue operating with less efficient aircraft, particularly as regards aviation fuel consumption, and to resort to aircraft leasing on onerous, discriminatory terms. The additional expenditure amounted to $14.8m

• At the end of November 2007, the Treasury Department ordered Boeing not to trade with Air Atlanta Icelandic group, which uses Boeing planes on its services to Cuba, on the grounds that this would breach the blockade. Shortly afterwards, the European Icelandic airline cancelled its leasing agreement with Cuba for Boeing aircraft.

• Upgrading and modernization of the IACC/CACSA Technical Information Centre was affected by the refusal of UK-based AVITAS Europe to do business with Cuba, having been banned from doing so by its parent company in Washington. The company publishes manuals of considerable value in negotiating deals in aircraft and engines in the civil passenger and airfreight sectors.

Cuban basic industry, a mainstay of the national economy encompassing fundamental manufacturing activities in nickel, oil, cement and chemicals and power generation, suffered the effects of the blockade across all its industrial sectors during the period.

Energy is a top strategic priority for any nation. Cuba is a net importer of energy and has consequently embarked on an ambitious plan of conservation, greater efficiency in the use of energy, and diversification of energy sources. This aims at cushioning to some extent the effect on the national economy of spiralling oil prices. Our country is seeking to progress towards the objectives of a strategy for national development on sustainable bases.

Nevertheless, Washington’s policy of sanctions is the main obstacle to achieving these goals. In the context of its anti-Cuba strategy, the Bush administration has prioritized the adoption of measures that delay and increase the cost of Cuba’s energy development programme. It involves threatening businessmen in third countries interested in sharing the risks of exploration for oil deposits, and even blocks simple exploration or negotiation in the field by American enterprises that have shown interest in investing in the sector, either in Cuban territory or in Cuba’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the Gulf of Mexico.

The following examples provide an overview of the measures adopted in applying the sanctions to this sector:

• Companies offering specialized oil-industry services which have been acquired by American transnationals have terminated their agreements with Cuba. On 10 September 2007, the US Company Weatherford announced that it had instructed its Canadian subsidiary Precision Energy Services to withdraw its services in the field directional control of wells in Cuba. It subsequently instructed that all operations be terminated immediately, that the tools be taken out of the wells and that all the personnel be returned to Canada. No payments were to be made to Cuban companies, while all funds in the bank account with Cuba’s BFI were to be transferred to Canada.

• Following approval of the Bush plan, the nickel industry has been a prime target of Washington’s hostility. An interagency group has been set up for the purpose. The impact on this Cuban industry has been affected to the amount of 67.5 millions of dollars in terms of exports of nickel and cobalt.

• Within the framework of the Energy Revolution programme underway in Cuba as part of efforts to expand and modernize the electricity generation, transmission and distribution system, 544 generators were purchased in South Korea. Because of the blockade, these had to be shipped in 53 vessels on the Korea-Jamaica-Cuba or Korea-Panama-Cuba routes, at an extra cost of $100,000 per voyage, given the 6 months’ banning from American ports for any vessels putting in at a Cuban port.

In the computing and communications sector, there is restricted access to the latest technology, to components and replacement parts, while the exchange of correspondence between the two countries is limited. Access to internet sites and services is blocked and the purchase of internationally recognized software (such as the Windows operating system) is banned. In greater detail:

• The blockade does not even respect open software, or its transparency and unrestricted accessibility, either in terms of its commercial potential or as free of charge. During the period, access to the new versions of the MySQL free database engine for medium-sized applications, the most widely distributed in the world, was limited. The same applied to Java, following its acquisitions by the US Company Sun Microsystems. This system, formerly a free download for users in Cuba, was extensively used in a wide variety of applications.

• The merger resulting in the formation of ARC-MGE between the manufacturer MGE UPS Systems, part of the French Schneider Electric, and the American manufacturer APC, has created serious problems for supply of three-phase UPSs to Cuba’s Ecosol. After lengthy delays in arranging purchases of this product, accompanied by false promises that the merger would not affect supply, the French APC-MGE told the Cuban company that it was to cease operations on the instructions of APC and would not be honouring its contractual commitments. Its executives in the Dominican Republic as well as those in France requested that they should not be contacted again, as this would place them in a difficult position. The supplies in question were destined for the University of Computing Sciences (UCI), the Neurological Hospital, the Institute of Cardiovascular Surgery and an amusement park.

Attempts to obtain the equipment via other intermediaries, French and one Canadian, were fruitless. In the first case for reasons of price and in the second because the arrangement was terminated when it became apparent that the items were destined for Cuba.

• United Parcel Services (UPS) in Berlin, complying with the extraterritorial regulations associated with the sanctions, returned a package of documents destined for Cuba to its sender, Zapf Mudanzas S.A., citing the blockade.

• Postal traffic between Cuba and the United States is restricted to a correspondence service set up by Unión Postal Universal. Its limitations affect the American and Cuban public alike. It cannot be extended to include exchange of money orders, scheduled delivery service, COD services or declared-value despatch.

• • 5. Repercussions on the American People and other Peoples in the World

The effects of the ruthless economic war waged by the United States on Cuba are not confined to Cuban citizens. The Bush administration breaks international law in applying a policy that prejudices other peoples in the world, including its own.

Washington has responded to the obvious failure of its criminal policy and the increasingly universal call by the international community for an end to the blockade by extending and intensifying its application. It seeks to minimize people-to-people contact as far as possible, as well as that between the two countries’ religious, academic, scientific, cultural and sporting organizations. Examples of the measures adopted include the following:

• In July 2007, the District of Columbia federal court rejected charges brought by the Emergency Coalition to Defend Educational Travel (ECDET) against the Treasury Department. On 13 June 2006, Judge Ellen Huvelle had ruled that the restrictions on educational trips, despite breaching the academic freedom guaranteed by the Constitution, were consistent with the provisions of the Bush Plan.

• In November 2007, American and Puerto Rican athletes were barred from participating in the Marahabana 2007 marathon. A large number of applications to run in this event were received from American and Puerto Rican groups of runners, clubs and individuals, who were finally unable to participate because of the blockade.

• The Treasury Department denied travel permits for visiting Cuba to 30 American musicians, whose sole aim was to attend ‘Spring in Havana 2008’, the 12th International Festival of Electro acoustic Music.

• Also denied was a permit for travel to Cuba in April requested by a group of New York State legislators forming part of a trade delegation from the state mentioned.

• A trip to Cuba by a group of 88 students on a master’s degree course in business studies at the Southern Methodist University, Dallas, Texas was suspended when the Treasury Department sent an ‘alert’ alleging misuse of the University’s licence.

• America’s Sport Show Broadcasting (SSB) signed an agreement worth $210,000 with the Cuban broadcasting organization ICRT covering the rights for televising 30 National Series baseball games. Because of intense political pressures, Cuba was able to transmit only six games.

• A similar situation arose with Mexico’s PCTV cable-TV company, also interested in the National Series, which had to cancel a 100,000-dollar contract, without explanation. In financial terms, the total impact amounted to some $268,000, not to mention the effect on the American and Mexican viewing public, who were unable to watch the games.

• An American professor, Todd J. Martinez of Illinois University, was unable to attend ‘Fotodinámica 2008’, which was held in Havana, his application for the necessary travel permit having been turned down. In November, three American specialists were prevented from attending ‘Lingüística 2007’, since they were unable to obtain the relevant permit.

• The Spanish company Hola Airlines, which ferried ‘Operation Miracle’ patients from Venezuela to Havana, was obliged to terminate its operations with Cuba. When ordering repairs to a damaged aircraft, it was informed by Boeing that the US authorities had prohibited them form providing technical support or supplying spares unless they cancelled their operations with Venezuela and Cuba. Operation Miracle is a strictly humanitarian programme for the benefit of low-income patients; its aim is to provide surgery for people with cataracts, palpebral ptosis, terigium and other conditions of the eye.

• • 5.1. Extension of the Blockade to International Organizations

During the period, the blockade continued to inhibit Cuba’s participation in international events, organizations and institutions, as well as the normal working of such entities in their operations with Cuba. Examples include the following cases:

• Cuba’s National Assembly of the People’s Power was unable in 2007 to pay its dues to the Inter Parliamentarian Unión (IPU) or the Latin American Parliament (PARLATINO). Geneva-based UBS, BANISTMO in Bogotá, Colombia and the London branch of Lloyds Bank all refused to accept payment from Cuba on the grounds of compliance with the blockade.

• The State Department denied the visa applications of two Cuban delegates to a meeting of the Executive Committee of the Parliamentary Confederation of the Americas (COPA) held in Los Angeles on 22-25 June 2007.

• The blockade also affected Cuba’s relations with the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), based in Geneva. Problems persisted over paying the Organization in respect of Cuba’s international patent application. These transactions were carried out via two Swiss banks, which refused to continue servicing them on the grounds of breaching the US blockade. The transfers had to be effected via a third party, increasing the risk and cost of the transactions.

• • 6. Opposition to the Blockade in the United States

Washington has failed to silence the protests at its permanent hostility towards Cuba. Voices continue to be raised at home, in opposition to this policy, demanding change.

The following are examples of such calls, which arose during the period covered by this report:

• On 12 June 2007, the board of directors of the USA Rice Millers’ Association passed a resolution calling on Congress and the administration to end the travel restrictions and normalize trade relations with Cuba.

• On 14 June 2007, an informative meeting took place in Congress under the title “Rethinking the U.S. Blockade against Cuba” chaired by representatives Charles Rangel (D-NY) and Jeff Flake (R-AZ). It was attended by various legal advisors, NGOs, diplomats, pressmen and the farming lobby. Rangel described the blockade policy as hypocritical, cited the Florida vote as a deciding factor in the persistence of the sanctions and called the travel restrictions an insult, since they infringed the civil and constitutional rights of American citizens.

• The same day, a senior delegation from the humanitarian Church World Services of America’s National Council of Churches, together with representatives of eleven of the country’s largest Christian denominations lobbied Congress for support for two bills, S.721 and HR.654, concerning freedom of travel to Cuba. The same organizations had earlier (7 June) issued a declaration to the same end, and on 12 June sent letters to congressmen in both houses calling for any legislation on the subject to include a clause lifting the restrictions on religious visits to Cuba.

• On 17 June 2007, Judiciary Committee chairman Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) introduced bill S.1806 ‘Judicial Powers Restoration Act of 2007’, whose third section proposes the repeal of Section 211.

• On 19 July 2007, Senator Dorgan (D-ND), during a Senate Appropriations Committee debate on the Agriculture Bill, submitted two amendments on sales of agricultural products and medicines to Cuba. At a session of the Agriculture Subcommittee, he introduced an amendment to authorize a blanket permit for travel to Cuba by American exporters of agricultural products and medicines, and submitted a proposal to the Financial Services Subcommittee for reverting to the pre-2005 payment system for sales of farm products to Cuba. Both amendments were approved in committee.

• On 25 July 2007, Representative Mark Udall (D-CO) introduced a bill entitled ‘The U.S. Participation in Cuban Energy Exploration Act of 2007’ (H.R. 3182), to enable US companies to participate in Cuba’s hydrocarbons exploration and extraction programme.

• On 21 September 2007, representatives Jeff Flake (R-AZ), William Delahunt (D-MA), James McGovern (D-MA), Jo Ann Emmerson (R-MO), Jerry Moran (R-KS) and Rosa DeLauro (R-CT) wrote to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, on behalf of the House’s working group on Cuba, urging the government to remove the restrictions on travel to Cuba, especially by Cuban Americans.

• During the second half of September 2007, it emerged that a meeting of the agriculture secretaries of the various states of the Union had debated the need to normalize trade relations with Cuba. The results included a declaration by the National Association of State Departments of Agriculture (NASDA).

• During the period, 12 delegations from the American business community visited Cuba, including attendances by the Agriculture Secretaries of New Mexico, North Dakota, California and Texas, as well as Secretaries and/or Commissioners for Agriculture of Iowa and Montana. Other visitors included seven congressmen.

• During the 2nd Latin National Congress in Los Angeles on 5-9 October 2007, three resolutions on Cuba were passed, including one that called on Congress to lift the travel restrictions for family visits, since these breached the Constitution and international law.

• On 29 October 2007, America’s National Lawyers Guild (NLG) issued a protest at the denial by the authorities of the visa application of the Vice President of the Union of Cuban Jurists’ Labour Law Society and member of the Bureau of the International Association of Democratic Lawyers, who had been invited to attend an event.

• On 27 November 2007, a group of American artists and intellectuals, including the actors Sean Penn and Danny Glover, the writers Alice Walker and Cristina García, the singer Harry Belafonte and the musician Ry Cooder, sent a letter to President Bush calling for an end to the ban on cultural exchanges between Cuba and the United States.

• On 27 March 2008, a round-table debate at the University of Georgia was attended by the former Secretaries of State Colin Powell, Henry Kissinger, James Baker III, Warren Christopher and Madeleine Albright. According to press reports, the panellists addressed the Cuba question critically, commenting that “The 50-year-old blockade has not worked, not worked to our benefit or their benefit. This is one of those issues that is driven more by politics than foreign policy,” said Christopher. “When policies don’t work for 50 years,” he said, “It’s time to start thinking about something else.”

• On 9 April 2008, during a conference at the Anapolis Naval Academy, US Senator Christopher Dodd (D-CT) called for the forging of a strategic alliance in the western hemisphere, which would have to start with a change in US policy on Cuba. He added that Washington should change its stance on Cuba radically, lift the blockade, remove the restrictions on travel and remittances and open a dialogue on matters of mutual interest.

• On 14 May 2008, the Foreign Relations Committee published a report under the title ‘US-Latin America relations. A new direction for a new reality’, drawn up by an independent task force. It suggested a series of first steps on the road to lifting the blockade on Cuba, including the following:

– Allow freedom of travel and facilitate trade with Cuba. The White House should withdraw the restrictions approved in 2004 affecting the travel and remittances of Cuban American families.

– Reinstate and make more flexible the 13 classes of travel permit for trips consistent with the concept of ‘people to people’ exchange, introduced by the Clinton administration during preparations for the Pope’s visit in 1998.

– Promote dialogue on matters of mutual interest, including migration arrangements, human traffic, the drugs trade, public health, the future of the Guantanamo naval base and sustainable management of environmental resources (especially if Cuba starts deep-water exploration for oil reserves with a group of foreign oil companies).

– Repeal the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, which took away most of the executive’s power to lift the economic sanctions. In parallel, Congress should pass legislation, like that on agricultural sales, aimed at deregulating bilateral trade and travel to Cuba, thereby creating opportunities for strengthening the democratic institutions.

• 7. Conclusions

The last year has been the worst to date in terms of the ruthless application of Washington’s policy of sanctions against Cuba. In tightening the noose, it has been guilty of irrational persecution of government agencies, firms, banks and citizens in third countries, even resorting to blocking internet sites that have any sort of link with Cuba.

The direct economic damage suffered by the Cuban people from the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the United States on Cuba, since its inception up to the end of 2007, is conservatively estimated at over 93 billion dollars.

The objective significance of this scale of damage is apparent from the consideration that this sum equates to 1.6 times Cuba’s GDP (the value of all the goods and services produced in a year), or around 12 times the country’s foreign debt at the end of 2006 , or some 23.5 times the total invested by Cuba during that year.

The figure quoted is restricted to the damage inflicted on the Cuban economy and people by Washington’s economic war; it does not include damage amounting to over 54 billion dollars caused by terrorist attacks and other hostilities against the Cuban nation by the US government and its mercenary agents over nearly half a century

As part of its strategy to subjugate the Cuban people through hunger and disease and thereby reverse the Revolution, subversive operations and plans have been intensified, with the declared aim of destabilizing and destroying the constitutional system established by the Cuban people. On 19 May last, the Cuban government published irrefutable proof of acts of conspiracy and interference by the official representatives of the United States.

There is no question but that the blockade is today the main obstacle to the development and wellbeing of Cubans, and constitutes a blatant, massive and systematic violation of the rights of an entire people.

Arrogantly and contemptuously, Washington continues to ignore the sixteen resolutions passed by the UN General Assembly. The virtually unanimous call by the international community for an end to this genocidal policy remains unheeded.

The Cuban people will never abandon defence of the gains won by the Revolution and will continue to progress in the exercise of its freedom and independence. It will do so regardless of any obstacles or restrictions that must be surmounted in the process. The will to resist among Cuba’s men and women is indomitable. The Cuban nation will continue to work in the same independent and indefatigable spirit in pursuing its aims of ever greater justice, equity and solidarity, which are the mainstay of the nation’s post-revolutionary way of life.

Once again, Cuba looks with confidence to the international community for support in our just cause: an end to the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by the government of the United States of America.

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