The Helms-Burton Law was signed on March 12, 1996 by president William J. Clinton. It was better known by the names of its main promoters, Republican Jesse Helms and Democrat Dan Burton
Havana, March 12 (RHC) The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez, today denounced that the Helms-Burton Law codifies the blockade and is an economic aggression by the United States Government against the island.
Rodríguez stressed in his account on X that such law affecting Cuban families violates Human Rights and International Law, and also demonstrates the failure of US policy towards the Cuban social system.
The Helms-Burton Law establishes limitations on trade, the carrying out of transactions, travel to and from the national territory, as well as restrictions on the sale and purchase of properties in which Cuba or natural citizens have an interest.
With its promulgation, the unilateral possibility of lifting the siege on the island was eliminated, and it established that it will remain in force until what Washington calls a transitional government certified by themselves exists in Cuba.
The third and fourth sections of the Helms-Burton Act remained inactive until 2019, when President Donald Trump authorized their implementation, in order to make normalization in relations between Cuba and the United States impossible.
According to specialists, the Helms-Burton Act is, together with the Torricelli Act (signed in 1992), an enormous obstacle to a stable, institutionalized, lasting and irreversible relationship between both peoples.
They also mean the violation of the principles of sovereign equality and non-intervention in the internal affairs of a State, contemplated by International Law as mandatory norms. (Source: PL)
