Spain will defend its companies in Cuba against US lawsuits
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The Government of Spain informed its companies established in Cuba that it will challenge all lawsuits from the United States, following Washington's tightening of the economic blockade against the island, it was reported today.
As published on Thursday by El Pais, the Pedro Sanchez executive assured companies with interests in Cuba that it will reject any complaints that come from the northern power by virtue of the Helms-Burton Act.
In May, President Donald Trump activated Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, suspended until then by his predecessors given the international rejection of its extraterritorial nature.
Passed in 1996, the legislation, described by numerous experts as illegal, codifies the economic, financial and commercial blockade that Washington has maintained against Havana for almost six decades.
Title III establishes mechanisms for US citizens to sue companies that allegedly benefitted from nationalized properties following the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.
According to El Pais, the Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Justice and Industry convened 16 companies affected by the policy, considered the longest standing system of sanctions in contemporary history.
Among those convened by the Secretary of State for Commerce were Iberostar, Melia, BBVA bank, Garrigues and the influential Spanish Confederation of Business Organizations, according to business sources cited by the newspaper. The Spanish government, by virtue of a European regulation that voids the resolutions of courts that make the questioned regulation effective, will not receive complaints filed against Spanish companies, whether they are addressed to the companies or before Spanish courts or the Ministry of Justice.
Along these lines, the publication recalled that the European Union (EU) Blocking Statute, approved in 1996, protects EU operators from the extra-territorial application of third country laws, including the Helms-Burton Act, whose effects it considers contrary to international law. / PL
