Waving the Big Stick: The Helms-Burton Affair
Smith, Wayne
Helms-Burton is not a rational piece of legislation. It clearly violates international law and various treaties the United States has signed and vowed to uphold. There are no more Cuban troops in...
...government had taken absolutely no measures to halt illegal Brothers to the Rescue flights which often penetrated Cuban airspace and even overflew the island...
...Canada, Mexico and the European Union have all come forward with retaliatory legislation which makes it illegal for their citizens to comply with the law...
...majority, would fight with him...
...courts...
...It was perhaps with this in mind that President Clinton first opposed the Helms-Burton bill, even suggesting he might veto it...
...goals of free trade and a Wayne Smith is Senior Fellow at the Center for International Policy in Washington, D.C and a visiting professor of Latin American Studies at Johns Hopkins University...
...For good measure, it bars the entry of their spouses and children as well...
...insistence on dictating to the United Nations who the UN Secretary General should be and how much the United States should pay in back dues, one cannot but fear that it represents a trend toward irresponsible unilateralism in the international arena...
...Given all that, one would have expected some improvement in U.S.-Cuba relations, perhaps even a relaxation if not a total lifting of the 37-year-old embargo...
...subsidiaries abroad from trading with Cuba-was extraterritorial in character, Helms-Burton is virtually imperial...
...interests and objectives with respect to Cuba itself...
...courts against the Cuban government or against entities of third countries who are supposedly "trafficking" in those confiscated properties...
...Fortunately, Helms-Burton is unlikely to produce anything so dramatic...
...With the HelmsBurton Act, signed into law on March 22, 1996, the United States has moved in exactly the opposite direction...
...Title I aims to prohibit Cuban participation in international financial organizations and threatens sanctions against countries that provide anything that could be defined as "economic assistance"-even attractive terms of trade-to Cuba...
...It conflicts with U.S...
...It has had a slight impact on the Cuban economy, but insufficient to result in more than a small reduction in economic growth...
...We would thus see massive bloodshed and tens of thousands of refugees on Florida's beaches...
...reaction to anything relating to Cuba...
...In fact, it is unlikely to achieve any of its stated goals...
...companies or citizens in order to recoup any losses to those same entities in U.S...
...Emphasis added.] Clearly, this law has caused and will continue to cause serious problems for the United States in the international arena...
...Title II prohibits Washington from dealing even with a transitional government that includes either of the two Castro brothers...
...Canada, Mexico and the European Union have all come forward with retaliatory legislation which makes it illegal for their citizens to comply with the law, and allows them to countersue U.S...
...Title III allows U.S...
...POLICY itself, over property nationalized in the early days of the Revolution...
...There are no more Cuban troops in Africa...
...The President did at least negotiate a waiver authority for Title III and has postponed its implementation...
...From 1979 to 1982 he was Chief of the U.S...
...it has for the first time openly set the ouster of Fidel Castro as its principle policy objective, and has hardened and locked in place the embargo and other sanctions until that goal has been achieved...
...citizens at the time the properties were taken...
...foreign policy under Bill Clinton-the usual emotional U.S...
...Interests Section in Havana...
...That aside, with the shootdown, the mood in the Congress turned ugly and President Clinton changed his own position, signing the bill into law on March 22...
...Moreover, Helms-Burton does not further U.S...
...But then came the Cuban shootdown of two small planes flown by Brothers to the Rescue in the Straits of Florida on February 24, 1996...
...The Cuban decision to shoot the planes down was a foolish mistake, but the incident took place in part because the U.S...
...As Senator Helms has put it, it is a matter of saying to other countries, "you can trade with us or with Cuba, but you can't trade with both...
...It would be reassuring to believe that Helms-Burton is simply an anomaly in the making of U.S...
...Congress toward unilateral sanctions as a standard policy response, and to U.S...
...It also prohibits the United States from engaging with any Cuban government, even one without the two Castros, unless all properties nationalized in the 1960s have been returned or full compensation has been made to the original owners...
...The Soviet-Cuban military alliance, which used to so concern Washington, disappeared with the Soviet Union...
...If pushed, he would fight, and many Cubans, perhaps a Not a single other government supports Helms-Burton...
...But this hasn't happened...
...Not a single other government supports HelmsBurton...
...goals in Cuba...
...To insist on Fidel Castro's ouster is to create the conditions for civil war...
...VOL XXXI, No 2 SEPT/OCT 1997 more predictable world order, and, indeed, is even counterproductive in terms of U.S...
...The United States has thus abandoned a long-held principle of international law which maintains that one state cannot advance the claims of those who were not its citizens at the time they sustained damages in a second state...
...The General Assembly of the Organization of American States (OAS), in its Panama meeting of June, 1996, voted unanimously to reject the HelmsBurton Act and to call on the Inter-American Juridical Committee (IAJC) to rule on its legitimacy...
...Cuba is no longer giving support to revolutionary groups in Central America or anywhere else in the world...
...That it will force Castro from power is simply a dream...
...He will probably continue to do so, since if Title III were ever implemented, all the retaliatory measures would be activated against the United States and there would be chaos in the international marketplace...
...As Senator Jesse Helms himself put it: "All we're saying to these countries is, obey our law...
...It has caused a storm of international protest and retaliatory action...
...The most central is the ouster of Fidel Castro and his brother Radl...
...Indeed, if the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992-which banned U.S...
...nationals to sue foreign companies or other entities, including the Cuban government 27REPORT ON U.S...
...Title II, which has been called a second Platt Amendment, lays down the conditions demanded by the United States for re-engagement with Cuba...
...There are four parts, or titles, to the law...
...It will not by any stretch of the imagination lead to economic collapse, and much less to civil war...
...no rational policymaker can expect Castro to resign peacefully and go into exile...
...The IAJC did just that on August 23, 1996, handing down a unanimous opinion that Helms-Burton violated international law on at least eight counts...
...Under Title III, Cubans whose properties were nationalized by the Castro government back in the 1960s, and who subsequently came to the United States and became citizens, can now bring suit in U.S...
...This refers not just to the properties of those who were U.S...
...But when one looks at the D'Amato bill with respect to Iran, to the growing tendency in the U.S...
...Finally, Title IV bars entry into the United States of executives of third-country companies said to be "trafficking" in those same properties...
Vol. 31 • September 1997 • No. 2
