The Cuban economy, a victim of the extraterritorial nature of the US blockade against Cuba.

New York, October 19, 2018. The extraterritorial nature of the economic, financial and commercial blockade imposed by the United States against Cuba for almost 60 years has been widened by the Helms-Burton Act, affecting all areas of the Cuban economy, and therefore, its people.

Some examples that stand out between April 2017 and March 2018 are:

• On May 11, 2017, the Cuban company TECNOTEX received word from Hyundai Elevators about the impossibility of working directly with TECNOTEX due to the blockade, since said company operates accounts in banks that maintain financial relationships with US banks.

• On June 2, 2017, we learned that the  online learning platform Future Learn (belonging to the UK public institution Open University) blocked the participation of several members of the Cuban Society of Anesthesiology and Resuscitation, because Cuba is on the list of countries under US government sanctions.

• On July 21, 2017, a Belgian branch of the US Company Hewlett Packard refused to sell to the Belgian company STUDIOTECH 30 specialized computers, because they were going to make up a complete station that would be sold to the Cuban Institute of Radio and Television.

• On January 4, 2018, we learned that the South African First National Bank had refused to process a transaction of one of its clients being sent to the offices of HAVANATUR UK LTD, because it had a relation to an entity included on the OFAC List of Sanctions.

• On February 12, 2018, we learned about the Bradesco Bank of Brazil preventing the Brazilian company Emporium Cigars from carrying out operations with the Cuban entities BICSA and Habanos S.A. because of the regulations imposed by the blockade on Cuba.

• On March 19, 2018, the Multibank of Panama canceled several transactions in Euros from US companies, and going to a Cuban company through the Panamanian company CCAS.S.A.

• On March 28, 2018, the German bank Deutsche Postbank refused to make a transfer in Euros from the German publisher 8MAI going to Granma International due to blockade regulations.

Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations