From: "Walter Lippmann" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Date: Sat, 21 Jul 2001 08:22:39 -0700 To: "CubaNews" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: [CubaNews] Bush Dribles EU on Cuban Sanctions (Pravda) 10:30 2001-07-20 MARCIA MIRANDA: BUSH DRIBBLES EU ON CUBAN SANCTIONS George Bush side-stepped the European Union with a deft dribble and the referee chose to turn a blind eye to the offside goal. As the EU congratulates the USA for the suspension of legislation controlling the imposition of an embargo against Havana, the Bush administration sets other measures in motion to keep up the pressure on Castro's Cuba. The Bush administration decided to suspend Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which regulates the trade embargo on Cuba, for a further six months, after the European Union threatened to take the matter up with the World Trade Organization. The European Commission, however, is only partly satisfied, for as its foreign relations spokesperson pointed out, the full objective is the revocation of all US unilateral legislation on Cuba. The nature of the Helms-Burton Act is extra-territorial, meaning that the US would be obliged to impose sanctions on companies from other countries operating in Cuba and it is this issue that the EU threatened to take up at the next meeting of the WTO in Doha, Qatar, at which Russia will be present for the first time as an observer. However, despite the euphoria in the European media about the suspension of this title, what is not reported is that other measures have been implemented to counter-balance the suspension and to placate the Cuban-American National Foundation, whose important vote Jeb Bush (brother of George W) needs in the forthcoming partial elections in Florida in 2002. George Bush has announced measures to make the blockade against Cuba even more rigorous than at present, restricting remittances of money to families in Cuba, curtailing visits to the island from US-based citizens and increasing aid to "independent" movements on the island. President Bush also admitted that he had asked the Treasury to expand the offices responsible for applying sanctions against Cuba. Misinformation will be broadcast to Cuba through Radio and TV Marti, based in Miami and controlled by the Cuban-American Mafia which proliferate in the city. One invites President Bush to explain this issue to his interlocutors at the G8 meeting in Genoa next weekend. What the USA is doing is interfering in the internal affairs of a sovereign state by underhanded and hidden methods, contrary to the directives of the UN General Assembly, which since 1992 has every year called for an end to the US blockade of Cuba. Marcia MIRANDA, PRAVDA.Ru BRAZIL _________________________________________________ KOMINFORM P.O. Box 66 00841 Helsinki Phone +358-40-7177941 Fax +358-9-7591081 http://www.kominf.pp.fi General class struggle news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe mails to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Geopolitical news: [EMAIL PROTECTED] subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] __________________________________________________
