Imagine: Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

33. A couple of f'r instances taken from earlier discussions DU'ers have had here re: US embargo on Cuba

We saw trolls wander all over the place in a quest to smear the only country which has stood up to the bully from the North all these long years, and refused to bow down, as it did when right-wing filthy, violent, wildly corrupt US-supported killer cretins like Fulgencio Batista were sitting in the President's office.

They have attempted to tell DU'ers, who've known about Cuba for years and years, or in some cases, have lived there, have married their spouses there, have family members there, or have made trip after trip there, established friendships there, one poster here has taught classes in Cuba, others have been all over the island from end to end, at their own leisure, and trolls try to tell them how Cuba is. It must be completely comical to these Cuba travelers and aficionados.

Real damage to the country, to its citizens has been done under the effects of the U.S. embargo, called "bloqueo" in Cuba, and over the years, additional anti-Cuban legislation has been added, the last by the towering, fetid, grotesque racist of the U.S. Senate, Jesse Helms in his Helms-Burton Act, which added additional extraterritorial power to the embargo, even as European countries, and Canada, etc. all immediately reacted in describing it as being illegal in international law. Something to be proud of, isn't it?

A couple of examples must be repeated for this thread, even as they have been discussed over and over again by legitimate DU members for years:

Cuba, Mexico upset by US move to halt energy meeting
Mon Feb 6, 2006 2:31 PM ET
By Marc Frank

HAVANA (Reuters) - Cuba and Mexico on Monday condemned the U.S.-ordered eviction of 16 Cuban officials from an American-owned hotel in Mexico City during a conference with U.S. energy companies.

The Cuban officials, including a vice minister, were told to leave the Sheraton hotel on Friday during a conference organized by the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association, which opposes the U.S. embargo on Cuba.

The Cuban government said the action showed that the 45-year-old embargo was an international blockade that infringed the rights of third countries, contrary to the U.S. position, which says the embargo is a bilateral affair.

"The tentacles of the U.S. government's blockade and criminal economic war against Cuba reach any corner of the planet, including to the detriment of other nation's sovereignty and laws," the official Cuban daily Granma said.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x2089709

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Mexico to Probe Hotel That Expelled Cubans
By LISA J. ADAMS
Associated Press Writer
February 6, 2006, 11:16 PM EST

MEXICO CITY -- Mexico launched an investigation Monday into whether the U.S. government pressured an American-owned hotel into expelling Cuban guests or whether the guests were asked to leave because of their nationality.

The meeting between Cuban officials and U.S. energy executives was moved to another hotel Saturday after the Hotel Maria Isabel Sheraton asked the Cubans to leave.
Mexico's Foreign Relations Department said Monday if the Sheraton had violated Mexican trade and investment protection laws, it would "apply the fines provided for under the law."

Cuba criticized the expulsion, with the Communist Party daily Granma saying in an editorial that "the tentacles of the blockade and the U.S. government's criminal economic war against Cuba are willing to reach beyond any boundary on the planet, even to the detriment of the laws of other nations."

Kirby Jones, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association, said the U.S. government pressured the hotel's owner, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., arguing that the U.S. company was violating a law that strengthened U.S. trade sanctions first imposed against Cuba in 1961.

The 1996 Helms-Burton law "does not exist, and should not be applied, in our nation," Mexican Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez told a Mexico City radio station in an interview.

More:
http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-mexico-us-cuba,0,5438838.story?coll=sns-ap-nationworld-headlines

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Canadian Guilty on 21 Counts in Cuba Trade Case

by Steve Eckardt
3 April 2002

PHILADELPHIA - Canadian citizen James Sabzali was found guilty here today on 20 counts of violating the U.S. Trading with the Enemy Act and a single count of conspiracy in connection with sales of water purification supplies to Cuba. He now faces up to life in prison and over US$5 million in fines.

Prosecutors previously declared their intention to seek a dozen years' sentence, according to Sabzali.

The 43-year-old salesman is the first Canadian to be criminally convicted for violating the U.S. embargo against Cuba. Seven of the charges against him are for actions taken on Canadian soil.

Canadian law makes it illegal to comply with the U.S. embargo.

"I'm shocked," declared Sabzali, who had fully cooperated with the five-year investigation, "it doesn't make any sense."

"It's unbelievable," said Sharon Moss, Sabazli's Canadian-born wife, clearly shaken by the verdict.

While the jury convicted Sabzali for sales made from Canada to Cuba , it found him not guilty on all charges up to March 1995, during his employment by Purolite International, a Canadian company.

Sabazli's April 1995 appointment as North American director of marketing for the U.S. corporation Bro-Tech, itself in the dock along with two of its executives, apparently triggered guilty findings on seven subsequent violations of the Trading with the Enemy Act, despite the sales being conducted from Canada. Failing to commit these violations would have subjected Sabzali to Canadian criminal penalties for complying with the U.S. embargo.

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.canadiannetworkoncuba.ca/Documents/Sabzali-Eckardt.shtml

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Thursday, 4 April, 2002, 09:45 GMT 10:45 UK
Canadian convicted of trading with Cuba

By the BBC's Mike Fox in Montreal

A US court has convicted a Canadian national of breaking the 40-year old American trade embargo against Cuba, in one of the first cases of its kind.

The man, James Sabzali, and two American company executives were found guilty of trading with an enemy of the United States by selling water purification chemicals to Cuba.

Prosecutors said the three men conspired to use foreign subsidiaries to channel American products to Cuba.

Mr Sabzali faces a maximum sentence of more than 200 years in jail although prosecutors have recommended less than five. He is to be sentenced on 28 June.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/1910284.stm

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