These days, unfortunately, the Helms-Burton law is once again news: Trump and his clique were in charge of dusting off some of the mechanisms of the monster signed during the Clinton administration in 1996.
Not satisfied with the shortcomings suffered by Cuban people, as a result of the blockade imposed by the government of the United States and toughened by this law, they resort to dissimilar mechanisms to defeat Cuba and what it represents.
Let’s recall then that the Helms-Burton Act, endorsed as state policy the right to encourage internal opposition and develop political subversion, in addition to including the renegotiation of the agreement on the Guantanamo Naval Base that became a current center of torture and murder.
However, the novelty of this awakening of recent days is in Title III, never before put into effect by any of the presidents of the United States, among other factors because of its extraterritorial nature.
This section allows any U.S. citizen or corporation to file lawsuits in U.S. courts to claim compensation for nationalized property following the triumph of the January 1, 1959 Revolution against people in third countries.
Inapplicable, inconsequential and absurd are the terms that best describe the content of the text that ratify Trump's aspirations to make the socialism of the hemisphere disappear.
What does the enactment of the Helms-Burton Act, Title III mean for our nation as of March 19, the deadline? Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla illustrates this very well in the Declarations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of January 16 of this year.
Consequently, Cubans would be forced to return, reimburse or pay U.S. claimants for the house in which they live, the area on which their communities are built, the arable land where they cultivate produce, the school where their children are educated, the hospital or polyclinic where they receive medical assistance, the place where their workplace is located or where they have a private business, and also sites used to provide subsidized services such as electricity, water, and communications enjoyed by the population.
All this is inadmissible for the Cuban people who have built a socialist, democratic and legal society on the ruins of neocolonialism and the misery left by the puppet and surrender governments before 1959.
However, the times change. Countries of the European Union, Venezuela, Bolivia and others have spoken openly against the law, because they are not willing to be taken to court in the United States for trading honestly with Cuba.
Directly affecting investments in our nation and its relations with other countries around the world and preventing international financial organizations from offering us loans are visible objectives and demonstrate the extraterritoriality of US decisions without the slightest respect for international law.
Specialists of American law have warned that the Helms-Burton Act, Title III, has no legal precedents in that country and question that Congress assumed a judicial function by decreeing that Cuban confiscations were illegal.
Undoubtedly, Trump's whims are above the rational, the legal and what should be. He and his clique are willing to assume what conflicts of interest would mean with many of their allies with investments in Cuba or the ambitious and endless demands of the troubled Cuban-American mafia.
Reality will have the last word. Today the application of the Helms-Burton Act, Title III is part of a neoliberal escalation against the peoples of the area. The Trump’s administration is not the first to threaten our sovereignty and here, we Cubans are with 60 years of Revolution to show the world.