US cracking down on Cuba dealings
MIAMI -- US Treasury Secretary John Snow unveiled action yesterday against 10 Cuban-owned or Cuban-controlled business groups that promote travel and trade with the communist island nation in violation of a four-decade-old embargo.
Appearing before about 100 Cuban-American businessmen in southern Florida, a key state in President Bush's election in 2000, Snow blasted President Fidel Castro while naming the organizations to be put on a Treasury list that makes it illegal for Americans to deal with them.
"Castro's regime has crushed freedom and has held Cuba back from its enormous potential as an economic power and as a friend of the United States," Snow said. Nine of the 10 companies listed by Treasury are travel companies that promote travel to Cuba. One company operates a website that allows people in the United States to buy products and have them shipped to family and friends in Cuba.
Snow came to Miami yesterday after hosting a weekend meeting of Group of Seven finance ministers at a luxury resort in nearby Boca Raton. Miami is home to many anti-Castro exiles, many of them supporters of Bush's Republican Party.
The organizations named are "owned or controlled by the government of Cuba or Cuban nationals," the Treasury said in a statement. Any of their property that falls under US jurisdiction will be blocked and no American can deal with the organizations unless authorized to do so by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, or OFAC.
Hard-line Castro foes in the Cuban exile community in Miami generally praised the crackdown but said they hoped the US government would do even more to toughen enforcement on companies promoting business in Cuba.
"It's very satisfying to know the government is cutting off funds that are vital to Castro's existence," said Ninoska Perez, a spokeswoman for the Cuban Liberty Council, a Miami-based exile group.
The administration has made no secret of its wish to hasten the departure of Castro, who seized power in 1959, and the latest action was described as a bid to further that objective and "to hasten the arrival of a new, free, democratic Cuba."
The announcement's timing, in a state pivotal to Bush's 2000 election as well as this year's reelection bid, seemed obvious, although Treasury officials said it was not politically motivated and was merely an effort to enforce the law.
"We're cracking down," Snow said. "We mean business. We are cutting off American dollars headed to Fidel Castro. At the same time, we are reaching out to the freedom-loving people of Cuba."
A US trade embargo against Cuba was imposed 42 years ago in February 1962, under President John F. Kennedy. Bush said last October he wanted to toughen enforcement of US laws prohibiting business dealings with Cuba, which remains a popular tourist destination for many Americans who travel from Mexico or Canada to its beaches.
The latest organizations listed by the Treasury as owned or controlled by Cuba include entities in Cuba itself as well as in Argentina, the Bahamas, Canada, Chile, the Netherlands, and Britain.
Those named are 2904977 Canada Inc. of Montreal; Corporation Cimex S.A. of Havana; Havanatur S.A. of Havana; Havanatur S.A. of Buenos Aires; Havanatur Bahamas Ltd.; Havanatur Chile S.A. of Santiago; La Compania Tiendas Universo S.A. of Cuba; Cubanacan Group of Havana; Cubanacan International B.V. of the Netherlands and Cubanacan U.K. Ltd. of London.
