Activation of the Helms-Burton Title III, an Attack to Cuban Sovereignty

Bruno Rodriguez, minister of Foreign Affairs, expressed on Twitter his
strong rejection of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement to activate Title III of the Helms-Burton Act

The Cuban government rejected this Wednesday the US State Department’s announcement to activate Title III of the Helms-Burton law, which allows the establishment of lawsuits against foreign companies that manage assets nationalized by the Revolution.

Bruno Rodriguez, minister of Foreign Affairs, expressed on Twitter his
strong rejection of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s announcement to activate Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, and described this action as an attack on International Law and the sovereignty of Cuba and third states.

I strongly reject Sec. of State Pompeo announced activation of Title III of Helms-Burton Act. It is an attack against International Law and the sovereignty of #Cuba & third States. Aggressive escalation of #US against #Cuba will fail. As in Girón (Bay of Pigs), we shall overcome.

— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) April 17, 2019

Aggressive escalation of #U.S. against #Cuba will fail. As in the Bay of Pigs, we will win.

For more than two decades U.S. administrations had waived the application of this title, among other reasons because of pressure from nations like Canada and those that make up the European Union, the latter bloc has announced that it will use all means at its disposal, including in cooperation with other international partners, to protect its interests, including a lawsuit before the World Trade Organization.

Title III is considered by experts to be counterproductive in international law since it has a marked extraterritorial character by affecting the legitimate interests of third parties and even protects Americans who have certified claims against Cuba, even though they were not US citizens at the time of nationalization.

The announcement of the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton comes after the Trump Administration said in January that it would only extend the suspension for 45 days, and in March did the same for a period of 30 days, but in that case said that from the 19th of that month it would allow the filing of lawsuits against more than 200 Cuban companies included in a unilateral list of sanctions.

This is part of the sustainable increase in U.S. aggressiveness toward Cuba, taking relations to a level of deterioration like never before. Among the closest actions is the breaking of a major league agreement with the Cuban Baseball Federation and sanctions against ships transporting Venezuelan oil to Cuba.