By Ricardo Alarcón de Quesada
Source: Digital Granma
18 July 2006

On 10 July 2006, Bush approved “additional measures” against Cuba, some of which are directly aimed at those who have business dealings with the country or have investments here. These include measures which would enable the United States to selectively institute legal proceedings, as provided for by Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, against some countries —judging from the remarks, it seems they are threatening to begin with Venezuela, but nobody knows what will happen once Pandora's Box is opened. The measures also announce that Title IV of the Helms-Burton Act will be rigorously applied, especially to those sectors where most European interests are to be found.

When the United States promulgated the Helms-Burton Act in 1996, there were protests in Europe. They called the Act extraterritorial in scope and contrary to the norms governing international trade. But they did not condemn its genocidal and interventionist character or the fact it sought to do away with Cuba's independence and sovereignty and to subject it to slavery and complete domination.

The European Union was merely vexed by a number of aspects of that Act which went against its interests.  That is the reason it complained exclusively about Titles III and IV of the legislative abomination.

The first illegally empowers US courts to hold trials, on the basis of claims submitted by supposed former owners of properties nationalized by the Revolution, against anyone who uses these in any way. The other denies visas to enter the United States to those who invest in Cuba, a prohibition which is also applied to their spouses and children which has affected individuals of diverse nationalities.

With respect to the rest, the most serious and extensive part of the document, the European Union made not a sound. It did not mention those chapters because European governments, in one way or another, had complicity in Washington's anti-Cuban policy.

They were forced to partially criticize the Act because of pressures from the public and, especially, from businesspeople in the Old Continent whose entirely legitimate economic and commercial dealings with Cuba face illegal sanctions and crude threats from the government of the United States.

The European Union thus presented an official claim against Washington at the World Trade Organization. Anyone who looks at press publications from ten years ago will easily find hundreds of articles, declarations and reports on this claim. Some spoke of an imminent commercial war. It looked as though the world was about to end.

But the press also reported, on a daily basis, on the frequent meetings between the representatives of both parties. Stuart Eizenstat and Leon Britan. If the former didn't visit the latter in Brussels, the latter traveled to meet with him in Washington. Their get-togethers were reported on in the media with about the same interest with which the most famous couples in show-business are portrayed.

Finally, they came to an agreement and announced it with a great fanfare: The European Union was to withdraw its claim at the WTO and, in addition to this, declared that it would continue to support US attempts to subvert Cuban society. Washington, in turn, would not apply Titles III and IV against the European Union and committed to take the steps, in Parliament, needed to modify the Helms-Burton Act in this regard.

The United States’ offer was, indeed, ridiculous. The essence of Title III is the threat to take law suits to federal courts, in such numbers that could spread chaos in the US judicial system, as the US government itself was aware at the time. It is for this reason, and no other, that the Helms-Burton Act itself grants the president the authority to suspend, for a period of six months, the right to pursue such proceedings, something Clinton did the very moment he promulgated the Act —well before the first European whimper—and something he and Bush have done twenty times over. The United States was “giving" Europe what it had already given itself, to protect its own interests, from the word go.

In other words, after kicking up a storm, Europe contented itself with a ridiculous promise and, in exchange, committed itself to doing exactly as told.

Ten years have passed. Neither the Clinton nor the Bush administration, at any moment, directly or indirectly, took any steps to fulfill their solemn promise. They haven’t even tried to pretend otherwise. Quite simply, they did nothing. Absolutely nothing.

And they did nothing because their interlocutor also had no memory of the supposed commitment. Europe let ten years go by without moving a finger, even though Washington did not keep its promise. Worse still, it did not react, during this period, when the United Status arbitrarily sanctioned European companies under an Act which is still intact. Europe was fast asleep.

Why should the United States honour its commitment, when it knows it can always rely on the services of the obedient and disciplined European Union?

What’s more, whenever it deems it convenient, the government of the United States publicly thanks Europe for its cooperation in the execution of anti-Cuban plans. An offer of cooperation that is so generous and altruistic that it has not been diminished by repeated violations of European sovereignty and the rights of its companies and citizens. Nothing disturbs its deep sleep.

May 2004 arrived. With great fanfare, Bush put his plan into effect, describing in detail, in strict adherence to the Helms-Burton Act, the genocidal acts he imagines he can undertake against Cuba and Cubans. The Bush Plan also includes new measures to step up the economic war it imposes upon us.

And, among these measures, there are many which specifically refer to other nations, including members of the European Union. Not one word has been uttered with respect to modifying the Helms-Burton Act. But many —nearly 500 pages of them—have been written to repeat, ad nauseum, that it will be rigorously applied. Among other numerous actions, Bush threatened with allowing the trials provided for by Title III and announced that the bureaucratic apparatus responsible for applying the sanctions included in Title IV will be strengthened.

Two more years went by. July 2006 arrived. The European Union keeps mum. Not one Foreign Ministry has uttered a syllable.

To date, no one in Europe has given signs of life.

To ask them to condemn the secret plan to attack the Revolution, the new and crueller restrictions imposed on Cuban families, the stupid and criminal prohibitions imposed on its churches, the shameless attempts to undermine Operation Miracle and the health services that save millions of lives, would surely be asking too much.

But is it asking too much to suggest that they should defend the interests of their own citizens? To remind them, with all due respect, of that piece of paper that Mr. Birtan and his inseparable friend signed? It’s probably not worth the effort.

It might be more practical not to disturb the slumber of Sleeping Beauty.

In this business of entering into pacts with the fascists, of giving them free reign, there’s plenty of experience across the Atlantic. But, unfortunately, this is also true of the consequences. Fortunately, no few are those who still remember Munich and Chamberlain and his umbrella and the horror that came after.

(Cubavsbloqueo)