BY ARGIRIS MALAPANIS
The Clinton administration is taking steps to ratchet up Washington's economic squeeze on the Cuban people. On May 29 the White House sent letters to three companies in Canada, Mexico, and Italy warning them they may face sanctions under the new U.S. law tightening the embargo on Cuba, which president William Clinton signed March 12.

The companies are Sherritt International Corp., a Canadian mining and oil concern with investments in Cuba's nickel and cobalt mines, oil production, tourism, and agriculture; Stet, the Italian telecommunications concern; and Grupo Domos, a Mexican conglomerate. Stet and Domos are partners with Havana in the Cuban Telecommunications Enterprise ETESCA.

The May 24 Wall Street Journal had reported that another possible target was Lorenzo Zambrano, the billionaire chairman of the Mexican cement company Cemex SA. On May 28, Cemex, the world's fourth-largest cement maker, announced it halted operations in Cuba and withdrew its staff of six to eight people from the island.

In the letters, crafted with the aim of stifling foreign investment in Cuba, the U.S. State Department is invoking the so-called Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Libertad) Act of 1996 - also referred to as the Helms-Burton law.

The legislation permits, for the first time, Cuban American and other U.S. businessmen whose property was confiscated by Cuban workers and peasants after the 1959 revolution, to sue companies abroad that invest in those properties. It also authorizes U.S. officials to deny entry into the country by any non-U.S. residents who "traffic" in confiscated properties -

including officers, directors, and controlling shareholders of these companies, and their spouses and children.

U.S. measures take bite
The steps by Washington indicating it will implement the law's provisions are beginning to have an impact on several companies with investments or trade links to Cuba.

Redpath, a Canadian Tate & Lyle subsidiary that usually bought between a third and half of the raw sugar for its Toronto refinery from Cuba, announced it is turning to other suppliers, despite higher costs. The new legislation prohibits any products that contain any quantity of Cuban sugar from being imported into the United States.

In March, Alfa-Eko, a Russian company that has a barter contract with Cuba, under which it is supposed to exchange oil for sugar, stopped its oil shipments to the Caribbean island. "I cannot attest that pressure has been exerted, but it coincides with the Helms-Burton law's approval," a Moscow diplomat told the Mexican news agency Notimex.

Alfa-Eko demanded lower prices for the Cuban sugar than what it had agreed to in the contract. Menatep-Impex - the second Russian company responsible for implementing half of the government-to-government deal for the exchange of 3 million tons of oil for 1 million tons of raw sugar - is continuing the trade with Cuba.

On May 25, José María Aznar, the newly elected conservative president of Spain, announced his government will suspend low-interest credits to Cuba, cancel $2 million in governmental aid, and limit any assistance to humanitarian shipments destined for non-governmental organizations in Cuba. Aznar was speaking at a joint press conference with U.S. vice- president Albert Gore, who was in Spain for a two-day visit.

Cuban foreign ministry spokesperson Miguel Alfonso told Reuters at the end of May that despite U.S. pressure most companies with joint ventures in Cuba are staying. He reiterated the Cuban government's position that the U.S. legislation will fail in its intention to "strangle the Cuban economy and destroy the revolution."

Executives of the Spanish hotel chain Sol-Melia, for example, announced they are willing to abandon holdings in the United States if forced to do so by Washington, and will expand business in Cuba. Sol-Melia operates six hotels in Cuba and plans to add two more facilities this year. In contrast, the company has requested permission to operate two hotels in Florida, which it says it is willing to give up.

Alfonso acknowledged, however, that the decision of Cemex to abandon operations in Cuba showed a U.S. policy of "blackmail and intimidation." Unlike Sol-Melia, the Mexican cement giant has four production plants and eight distribution centers in the United States, making it particularly vulnerable to lawsuits under the new U.S. legislation. In Cuba, Cemex was providing marketing and technical assistance at a cement plant in Mariel - a property still claimed by the Connecticut-based Lone Star Industries.

Washington's trade offensive
Several U.S. allies, who also compete with Washington for markets, have protested against the embargo-tightening legislation because it registers an intensifying trade offensive by Wall Street against their interests.

Germany's foreign minister Klaus Kinkel warned May 9 that Washington could face retaliatory measures if third countries suffered under the U.S. threatened trade sanctions. "For reasons of principle, the European Union would have to consider countermeasures that would in turn have a negative impact on American trade and investment interests in Europe," Kinkel said. Bonn has been the only government to sign a trade treaty with Havana since Clinton signed the Helms-Burton bill into law.

Several governments in Europe and Canadian officials have reiterated their opposition to the U.S. legislation. But so far none of these regimes have taken any counter-measures.

The same day the Clinton administration sent out its warning letters, British foreign secretary Malcolm Rifkind gave a speech in Washington criticizing the law. "We do not quarrel with Congress's aims," he said, "but we disagree very strongly with the means they envisage."

In a May 29 interview with the Toronto Globe and Mail, Canadian international trade minister Arthur Eggleton reiterated Ottawa's opposition to the anti-Cuba legislation but shied away from threatening any specific retaliation. "We're looking at our options," he said. "It's still not clear how [the law is] going to be implemented."

Ottawa has said it may pass a law prohibiting Canadian companies from complying with the "Libertad" act.

In mid-May Canadian prime minister Jean Chrétien won limited diplomatic support for his opposition to the U.S. legislation from government officials from six Central American countries who went to Toronto for a summit. The final summit communiqué - signed by Chrétien, and government representatives of Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, El Salvador, Costa Rica, and Belize - made no specific reference to Cuba or the U.S. law. It instead asserted the general right of sovereign states to trade and maintain economic relations with whomever they choose. Chrétien also used the occasion to assail Havana for alleged human rights violations.

Condemned by Latin America govt's
The law has been condemned by most governments in Latin America on the ground that it infringes on their sovereignty.

The Mexican embassy in Washington sent a diplomatic note to the White House protesting the U.S. letter threatening sanctions against the Domos Group. The note described the Clinton administration action as "an illegal attempt to make the U.S. extraterritorial jurisdiction prevail in Mexico."

U.S. state department spokesman Nicholas Burns said despite these complaints, implementing the regulations was not a problem for Washington. "It's a fact of life," he said. "It's the law of the United States. And this administration has a constitutional obligation to implement U.S. law."

Similar rifts between Washington and Mexico, as well as other regimes in Latin America, surfaced in March during a meeting of trade ministers from the Americas, which took place in Cartagena, Colombia.

"During the close of Wednesday night's [March 20] forum on technology issues," reported the March 22 Journal of Commerce, "an Argentine businessman discussing intellectual property rights became incensed and yelled that the United States was imperialistic." At the request of U.S. representatives, heavily armed police forces came in to calm things down.

"Later," the article continued, "U.S. trade representative Mickey Kantor and Mexican commerce secretary Herminio Blanco were seen in heated and clearly unpleasant discussion over `innocuous language.' "

But most of the capitalist regimes in Latin America have few investments in Cuba and, when faced with the choice, are unlikely to sacrifice their relations with Washington over trade deals with Cuba.

After a recent visit by Russian foreign minister Yevgeny Primakov to Venezuela for talks on renewal of an agreement to supply oil to Cuba, for example, the planned deal remains doubtful.

The proposed accord, under which Venezuela would ship 30,000 barrels of oil a day to Cuba in exchange for Russia sending the same volume to Venezuela's refineries in Germany, is at the stage of a "feasibility study," according to Venezuelan government officials. A similar deal, which saved both governments transportation costs, collapsed in 1991.

At the end of May, the Venezuelan government commissioned a New York law firm to look into whether the deal may violate the "Cuban Liberty" act. "Right now, the climate within the [Venezuelan state-run] oil company is against the deal," a Venezuelan negotiator told the June 3 Miami Herald.

U.S. enforces travel ban
At the same time, the U.S. government has become more aggressive in enforcing its travel restrictions to Cuba.

On April 24 the U.S. Treasury Department informed Benjamin Treuhaft, a piano tuner from Berkeley, California, that it intends to fine him $10,000 for violating Washington's embargo against Cuba. Treuhaft had a license to ship piano parts to the Caribbean country but had no permission to travel to the island.

"In violation of Cuban Assets Control Regulations," said the Treasury Department note to Treuhaft, "you traveled to Cuba, where you worked as a piano tuner. You donated music supplies, valued in the thousands of dollars, and services to Cuba's Museo Nacional de la Musica. Additionally, you earned income derived from Cuban nationals by providing piano-rebuilding services." Treuhaft had 30 days to explain why he should not pay the fine.

Cuban-American organizations report that an increased number of Cubans traveling to the Caribbean island to visit relatives are being slapped with fines if they go unlicensed. Cuban- Americans can only travel to Cuba without a special license to visit a close family member who is gravely ill, and even then only once a year. The "Cuban Liberty" act allows the Secretary of the Treasury to impose civil fines of up to $50,000 on individuals violating any provisions of the law through administrative hearings, without a trial.

And on April 30, the ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Treasury Department regulations that in effect ban travel to Cuba. The Freedom to Travel Campaign, a San Francisco-based group that has organized numerous trips to Cuba in defiance of the travel ban, challenged the constitutionality of the restrictions after the Treasury Department froze some $40,000 in the group's assets. The government eventually returned the funds after the group organized a successful protest campaign.

Medea Benjamin, who heads Global Exchange, where the Freedom to Travel Campaign is based, said the group will appeal the decision.

Attorney Michael Krinsky, with the Emergency Civil Liberties Committee in New York, represented the Freedom to Travel Campaign. "The Clinton administration," he said, "has made it increasingly clear that it views the regulation of travel as an instrument of foreign policy rather than the right of citizens."  
 
 
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