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Archive for the ‘Cuba Sanctions’ Category

Apr

13

White House May Take Cuba off Terrorism List

Posted by Clif Burns at 8:35 pm on April 13, 2015

Cuba - Havana - Car by Didier Baertschiger [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/didierbaertschiger/11785935544[cropped]

There have been news reports suggesting that Obama is contemplating, as part of the thaw in U.S.-Cuba relations, to remove Cuba from the list of countries that are state sponsors of terrorism. Beyond the symbolic significant of such a move, what would be the real consequences?

Of course, one consequence of being on the list is that, under section 40 of the Arms Export Control Act, 22 U.S.C. Â§ 2780, any country put on the list of state sponsors of terrorism is automatically subject to an arms embargo. Of course, even if Cuba is removed from the list, I would not count on arms shipments from the U.S. to Havana in the foreseeable future.

Second, section 6(j) of the defunct Export Administration Act, 50 App Â§ 2405, requires a license for exports to state sponsors if the export could make a “significant contribution to the military potential of such country” or if it could “enhance the ability of such country to support acts of international terrorism.” And, in those instances, Congress must be given notice of such exports thirty days in advance. Of course, the Export Administration Act is no longer in force and is only even in the appendix to Title 50 of the U.S.C. because the President breathes life into it every year using the superpowers bestowed on him by the International Economic Emergency Economic Powers Act. So the White House could end any license requirement for Cuba and end the notification requirement using the same superpowers that resurrected those provisions in the first place.

You might also think that removing Cuba from the list might make it easier to ship agricultural products, medicine and medical devices to Cuba under the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000. After all, the Act, in section 7205, imposes a license requirement for shipping those goods to a sanctioned country if that country is also on the state sponsor of terrorism list. However, that section specifically identifies Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism and imposes the license requirement on exports of agricultural products, medicines and medical products to Cuba. So, removing Cuba from the terrorism list will not eliminate the need for exporters to Cuba to continue to file the export notifications required to utilize License Exception AGR for TSRA exports to Cuba.

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Apr

3

Airbnb, Man, in Havana (Apologies to Graham Greene)

Posted by Clif Burns at 3:11 pm on April 3, 2015

Category: Cuba Sanctions • OFAC

Casa Espada airbnb listing via https://www.airbnb.com/rooms/5701299?s=yz00 [Fair Use] The revised Cuba sanctions created a general license for those providing travel services to authorized U.S. travelers to Cuba. The ink on the Federal Register notice was scarcely dry before room sharing service Airbnb had listings in Cuba up and running.

Of course, the remaining sanctions impose some unusual restrictions on Airbnb’s activities in Cuba. First, U.S. travelers still cannot go to Cuba for fun and mojitos; they must qualify for one of the existing general licenses, e.g., to visit family or do professional research in Cuba. Airbnb needs to get fromÂ each of its customers booking a stay in Cuba a certification of the particular section of the OFAC rules which authorizes them to travel to Cuba. These records must be maintained by Airbnb for five years.

Second, Airbnb may only provide these services to U.S. persons because the general license covers travel services for travel authorized by the Cuba sanctions. Those sanctions only authorize travel by U.S. persons, so Airbnb cannot book rooms for Canadians or Italians. (There’s an argument that “authorized” might also mean “not forbidden” which would allow Airbnb to serve non-U.S. customers, but, for the moment, Airbnb is taking the conservative position.)

Third, the new sanctions do not permit Airbnb to provide non-travel related services in connection with these bookings. So, Airbnb cannot help the Cuban “hosts” design their listing or edit their photographs. Even so, many of the listings look like interesting places to stay, even though hot water, Internet, and other ordinary amenities may well be missing. I could, for one, happily stay in the Havana apartment shown in the picture to the right — particularly at its listed price of $56 per night. Â And sometimes I think that not having access to the Internet on vacation might actually be a good thing!

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Mar

25

Dead Cubans Removed from SDN List; Fictional Daniel Garcia Stays On

Posted by Clif Burns at 10:02 pm on March 25, 2015

Category: Cuba Sanctions • OFAC • SDN List

Cuba Capitole by y.becart(Own work) [CC-BY-SA-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Flickr https://www.flickr.com/photos/yoh_59/13697566663 Yesterday the Office of Foreign Assets Control (“OFAC”) quietly removed a number of Cuba-related listings from its Specially Designated Nationals and Blocked Persons list. These delistings included dissolved companies, dead people and Cuban ships that had either sunk or were out of commission. For example, Amado Padron Trujillo, designated in 1986,was executed in 1989. By Cuba. For treason. Talk about a guy who couldn’t get a break.

Also delisted was the late Alfred Stern, who was once accused of spying for the Soviet Union. He fled the United States, lived in Cuba from 1963 to 1970 and died in Prague in 1986. Another dead man taken off the SDN List was Carlos Duque, a business partner of Manuel Noriega, who stopped threatening the United States when he died last October.

Even though OFAC delisted dead people and sunken ships from the SDN List, it still could not bring itself to delist the probably fictional Daniel Garcia, who allegedly threatens the United States by running a non-existent talent agency, Promociones Artisticas (PROARTE), in Mexico City. The problem with designating a non-existent Daniel Garcia is that there are plenty of real people named Daniel Garcia who, as a result, cannot open bank accounts, get loans, buy automobiles, or get on an airplane without getting searched.Â We wrote about the curse of being named Daniel Garcia here.

I have been told, off the record, that no one at OFAC knows who Daniel Garcia is or was, if he ever was, and why he was put on the list in the first place. That, I’m told, is part of the reason that Daniel Garcia is fated to remain on the SDN List in perpetuity.

In short, since imaginary people never die, the real Daniel Garcias of the world are just going to have to live with it.

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Mar

17

Sailing to Cuba on the General License May Not Be Smooth Sailing

Posted by Clif Burns at 11:51 pm on March 17, 2015

Category: Cuba Sanctions • OFAC

Charlotte under full sale by Nat Benjamin [Fair Use] Here’s a bad idea: apply to the Office of Foreign Assets Control for a license to sail from Martha’s Vineyard to Cuba, have it denied, apply again, never hear back, then decide to go anyway and have the Martha’s Vineyard Times publish a story on your trip. Well, that’s what a guy named Nat Benjamin did and you can read all about it here in the Martha’s Vineyard Times.

Although he timing of the trip is not entirely clear, it appears that Benjamin, who set sail for Cuba in November 2014, arrived in Cienfuegos, Cuba, perhaps luckily for him and his crew, after the new Cuban sanctions rules went into effect on January 15, 2015. According to the Martha’s Vineyard Times article. Mr. Benjamin decided to head for Cuba without the license required at the time of his departure “in hopes that the humanitarian nature of his trip would trump any troubles.”

The question then is whether Mr. Benjamin’s trip fits within the new general license for humanitarian visits set forth in section 515.575 of the Cuban sanctions regulations.

While in Cuba, Mr. Benjamin traveled throughout the country and shared his boatbuilding experience. He was able to contact wooden boatbuilders in the Cuban city of Trinidad.

Mr. Benjamin said Cubaâ€™s wooden boatbuilding industry is not well known outside the country. He partnered with some boatbuilders, hoping to learn about their work, and donated much-needed tools.

Section 515.575 sets forth fairly specifically the sorts of projects that qualify as humanitarian projects, and learning about the work of Cuban boatbuilders, seems to be on the outside edges at best. Here’s what is permitted:

The following projects are authorized by paragraph (a) of this section: medical and health-related projects; construction projects intended to benefit legitimately independent civil society groups; environmental projects; projects involving formal or non-formal educational training, within Cuba or off-island, on the following topics: entrepreneurship and business, civil education, journalism, advocacy and organizing, adult literacy, or vocational skills; community-based grassroots projects; projects suitable to the development of small-scale private enterprise; projects that are related to agricultural and rural development that promote independent activity; microfinancing projects, except for loans, extensions of credit, or other financing prohibited by Â§515.208; and projects to meet basic human needs.

Maybe this was non-formal educational training on vocational skills, but, even if it does, Mr. Benjamin also needs to be able to prove that he and everyone else devoted a full-time schedule in Cuba to these activities. Having set sail for Cuba before the new sanctions were in effect and with only a vague humanitarian purpose, Mr. Benjamin may not be able to provide this documentation. Perhaps Mr. Benjamin, his wife and his crew are in the clear on this, but this illustrates the potential difficulty in relying on the new general licenses for travel to Cuba without careful preparation and documentation.

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Mar

9

Slow Boat From China: Keep Cuba in Arms Evermore

Posted by Clif Burns at 5:23 pm on March 9, 2015

Category: Arms Export • China • Cuba Sanctions

Da Dan Xia Weapons Cache by Colombia Prosecutor's Office [Fair Use] Colombia recently detained the Chinese vessel Da Dan Xia after it entered the port of Cartagena to unload part of its cargo. Based on an anonymous tip, Colombian officials searched the boat and found a boatload, so to speak, of weapons: 100 tons of gunpowder, just under three million detonators, 99 projectiles and approximately 3,000 cannon shells. All destined for Cuba. The ship’s documentation listed none of these goodies correctly, instead calling them spare parts and chemicals, and so the captain of the ship was hauled off the boat and arrested.

The Cubans aren’t saying anything and the Chinese are saying stupid things.

Chinaâ€™s foreign ministry said on Wednesday that the ship had been involved in â€œnormal trade co-operationâ€. Hua Chunying said the ship was carrying ordinary military supplies to Cuba and was not in violation of any international obligations.

Of course, this does not explain why the items were not accurately described. But I can tell you the likely reason for that: Colombia is a signatory to the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives and Other Related Material. That means that a transit permit would have been required for the ship to enter a Colombian port loaded up with this cargo. And, guess what? China did not want to bother getting a transit permit, largely, I suppose, because it did not want the United States, or anyone else, to know that it was selling this stuff to Cuba.

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