EU lifts Cuba sanctions: presidency (officially lifted)

[cal04]

Source: AFP

The European Union officially lifted its sanctions against Cuba, the Slovenian presidency of the bloc said Monday, in the hope of encouraging democracy on the island in the post-Fidel Castro era.

"The problems that came up during the day have been resolved. The decision has been adopted," a spokesman for the presidency said, referring to a procedural obstacle that had briefly delayed the move.

He explained that the wrong version of the text for the decision had been presented to EU ministers, causing a delay. The Swedish delegation noticed that an annex with conditions on the lifting of the sanctions had been omitted.

The measure was a largely symbolic political move as the European Union sanctions have been suspended since 2005.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20080623/wl_afp/eucubasanctions_080623184916

[dipsydoodle]

1. UK banks accused of boycotting Cuba

Hasn't put a stop to this yet :

Leading British banks have been accused of operating a covert embargo of Cuba out of deference to the US. The accusation comes after revelations that Lloyds TSB and Barclays Bank have been telling clients who trade with Cuba to take their accounts elsewhere.

Although none of the major banks are prepared to go on record over their policy towards Cuba, the Guardian has learned that Lloyds TSB, Barclays Bank, the Royal Bank of Scotland and HSBC are all complying with the US blockade of the island that was condemned in the UN earlier this year by a vote of 184 to four. The US has taken legal action in the courts against multinational companies that deal with Cuba and have offices in the US.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2008/jun/23/cuba.usforeignpolicy

BTW credit where due : my only knowledge of that was due to an earlier post on DU on the exact subject

[L0oniX]

2. WOOT

[marias23]

3. Friend of Cuba, Not Castro

I am no friend of Castro's Stalinization, but the hurt that has been inflicted on the Cuban people by the boycott is mindless cruelty. I have been to Cuba and I am sure it will give some Cons a smile to know that Havana looks like Berlin after WWII. Our foreign policy at work.

The idea of changing the economic order as difficult as that is, is necessary and a must for peaceful, just world. There will be no peace without economic justice.

Actually, I think it was all about (surprise, surprise) money - we are afraid of the possibility of an offshore Japan with beaches.

[Mika]

7. "Havana looks like Berlin after WWII." Huh? You have to be joking.

Havana is spouting new buildings constantly. Their economy is growing. NOBODY in Cuba is losing their home because of a sub prime mortgage meltdown.

I've been there many times too. You must be talking about the historic 'old Havana', where renovations are undergoing, not the new Havana.

US hegemonic foreign policy: mission NOT accomplished. Cuba's infrastructure is building out and improving, and has been since the '59 revolution.

This looks like Berlin after WWII? Nope.













-

[Judi Lynn]

8. And they've only just begun their restoration era, after getting the more pressing problems,

like housing, medical care, education, adequate food underway, and available for everyone.

The man in charge of restoration, Eusebio Leal, is famous all over the world for his great skill, and he has had such a limited budget with which to work. They're just getting really underway, and they will be getting everything done, in time, without sacrificing their vital social/educational/medical resources established for everyone, not available for the massive poor population prior to 1959.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com.nyud.net:8090/images/2007/12/06/world/06havana.2-190.jpg http://graphics8.nytimes.com.nyud.net:8090/packages/images/photo/2007/12/06/1206-HAVANA/20870455.JPG


I'm not seeing a resemblance, myself. Oh, well.

[AlphaCentauri]

9. Tales from little Havana

The tale that Cubans are living in misery, without health care, no economy, no production and bad education. Oh!, big surprise all those arguments are part of many neo-liberalism tales. We can find cities in the open markets of latin america where neo-liberalism is combating poverty as usual. For example 7 miles from the US border there is a town called Maclovio Rojas where old wood garage doors make the walls of people houses, this town is located just behind an industrial and commercial corridor where coca cola, walt mart and many other multi billion dollars corporations have their stores whorehouses and assembly plants. We can see in this town how capitalism works for the people, the industrial parks with full services and the poor next door living in misery.

Read more about capitalism at work http://www.variant.randomstate.org/4texts/David_Harding.html

[David__77]

4. Cuba's democracy needs no input from Europe.

Cuba can handle its own affairs very well, as they have shown since 1989.

[ohio2007]

5. Castro condemns EU's 'hypocrisy'

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro has lashed out at the EU's decision to lift sanctions against his country, calling it "an enormous hypocrisy".

He said the move was "disparaging" because it was conditioned on human rights progress in Cuba.



snip
"There will be very clear language also on what the Cubans still have to do... releasing prisoners, really working on human rights questions," she told reporters at an EU summit in Brussels.

The sanctions' removal is largely symbolic but still a success for Raul Castro's new government, analysts say.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7466943.stm

[Judi Lynn]

6. They've seemed to knuckle under and accept US direction on this subject, haven't they?

There is a big difference, however, in that a LOT of their citizens vacation in Cuba, and Cubans come and go to Europe.

This is a good place to remind people of this recent story:

US.gov disappears European-owned Cuba websites
Blacklists never lie
By Burke Hansen
Published Wednesday 5th March 2008 22:07 GMT

Let's see this Treasury Department list again... Aiman Al-Zawahiri....Radovan Karadzic....Alexander Lukashenko.... ah, Tour & Marketing International.

Steven Marshall, the owner of T&M and affiliated websites such as www.cuba-hemingway.com, www.cuba-oldhavana.com, and www.cubanculture.com, is a British travel agent with an interest in Cuban culture who sells tours to Cuba to European tourists. Unfortunately for Mr. Marshall, the American government has little sympathy for those who don't share its hardline views of the Caribbean nation. Imagine his surprise when he woke up one day and rubbed his eyes clear - unbeknown to him, his company had been blacklisted by the American government, and his hosting company Enom had shut down all his websites.

The American government's obsession with all things Castro has led to some of the most restrictive trade sanctions in the world. Since 1963, the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) - an arm of the Treasury Department that enforces asset forfeiture decrees against international drug king pins, terrorists and assorted political undesirables - has robustly asserted its authority to seize assets of Americans or American companies that in any way, shape or form provide hard currency to the Castro regime.

But as the New York Times reported yesterday, the Treasury Department is taking an even more expansive view of its jurisdiction over the Cuban embargo, if the T&M case is indicative of things to come.

The case also threatens to renew lingering concerns in the internet community over continued American dominance of the internet. Marshall is a British citizen living in Spain. He sells tours to tourists in Europe, which imposes no restrictions on travel to Cuba. His servers were located in the Caribbean.

His only proven ties to the United States were domain registrations through ICANN-approved registrar Enom and his use of the .com top level domain, whose registry is, for all intents and purposes, owned by Verisign, an American company with close ties to the American government. The move by OFAC has troubled American experts on internet law. Should registration through an American registrar or registry really justify American jurisdiction and the forfeiture of websites which are not even hosted on American shores?

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/03/05/us_kills_european_based_cuba_websites/