The French shipping company CMA CGM has breached its contract and left dozens of containers destined for Cuba stranded in the port of Kingston, Jamaica.
Among them, one sent by the NGO SODePAZ with more than 3.5 million syringes and needles destined for the Cuban health system in Santiago de Cuba, and another sent by the Catalan solidarity coordinator Defensem Cuba with 300 mattresses and bed frames and 600 pillows for victims of Hurricane Melissa.
CMA CGM is thus yielding to US pressure and collaborating with the blockade of Cuba, offering no solution beyond returning the container to the port of origin or transferring the goods to another shipping company, with all costs incurred by the original shipper.
“Following the US executive order issued on May 1, CMA CGM has decided to suspend its bookings to and from Cuba until further notice,” the French company stated in an emailed statement. It added that it is “closely monitoring the situation” and will adapt its operations in compliance with current regulations.
A spokesperson for another shipping company, the German firm Hapag-Lloyd, stated that it was also suspending orders to Cuba “due to the risks of non-compliance associated with the US president’s executive order of May 1.”
Trump’s executive order of May 1 expanded existing US sanctions on trade with Cuba to include “any foreign person” operating in the “energy, defense and related materials, metals and mining, financial services or security sectors of the Cuban economy, or any other sector of the Cuban economy.”
US President Donald Trump signed Executive Order 14404, which threatens to freeze the assets in US territory of all individuals or entities that work or have worked for the Cuban government, or those who have provided it with financial, material, or technological support.
CMA CGM, owned by one of Europe’s most influential family clans
CMA CGM is owned by one of Europe’s most influential family clans. This family is of Franco-Lebanese origin; the current patriarch, Rodolphe Saadé, was born in Lebanon in 1970 and studied Business at Concordia University in Montreal.
Since 2017, he has held the position of Chairman and CEO of CMA CGM Group, consolidating the company as one of the three largest shipping companies in the world, with interests in the commercial distribution sectors such as the Carrefour chain and the main media group in France, which includes the newspaper La Provence, the magazine La Tribune, broadcasters such as RMC and the main news channel BFM TV.
IMAGE CREDIT: Photo: El Canal Newspaper
[ SOURCE: www.cubainformacion.tv ]
Cubainformación, with information from Sodepaz and Defensem Cuba
