(Photo: Gilberto González/Radio COCO)
The increase in sanctions in the banking-financial sector, which affect Cuban entities and third parties in frank violation of international law, marks at present the policy promoted by the United States toward the island.
Thus denounces a statement from the mission of Cuba to the United Nations, which disseminates figures from the most recent report on the incidence of the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by Washington almost 60 years ago.
The report covers data corresponding to the period from April 2018 to March 2019, and reflects how relations between both nations have been marked by the hostile policy promoted by the Donald Trump administration.
From June 2018 to April 2019, the U.S. imposed nine sanctions on companies and banks from third countries, including the United States, the statement says.
The total amount of these penalties amounted to three billion,751 million, 449 thousand 017 dollars, the text states.
The Office of Control of Cuban Assets and other US agencies fined third-country companies for violating different sanctions programs, including the Regulations for the Control of Cuban Assets.
On February 14, 2019, the Office of Foreign Assets Control of the United States Department of the Treasury (OFAC) imposed a penalty of five million, 512 thousand, 564 dollars to Applichem GMBH, based in Darmstadt, Germany.
OFAC also imposed a penalty on April 11, 2019 on Acteon Group LTD and its subsidiary 2H Offshore, both based in the United Kingdom, for violations of the Regulations for the Control of Cuban Assets.
The amount that companies must disburse is $ 227,500. Acteon is forced to pay another $ 213 thousand 866 for additional violations of the laws of the blockade against Cuba.
Another of the events mentioned in the document is that in the month of May 2019, the International Air Transport Association canceled the access of the Cuban travel agency Havanatur and the Cuban Aviation airline to the payment and ticket reservation mechanism for the offices of these entities in Mexico, France and Italy.
To apply such measures, the US blockade regulations implied a significant financial and operational impact on Cuban entities.
The day before, the outgoing president of the UN General Assembly, María Fernanda Espinosa, stressed that the organization has had a very clear position for decades against the US blockade against Cuba.
As she told Prensa Latina, unilateral sanctions really affect the security and the right to development of all peoples, and hinder the ability to use those benefits.
Since 1992, the UN General Assembly has passed 27 resolutions that call on the US government to end, without any conditioning, its policy of blockade against Cuba.
