Statement of the ACNU in rejection of the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act
The Cuban Association of the United Nations (ACNU), an organization of Cuban civil society with Consultative Status to the Economic and Social Council of the United Nations (ECOSOC), that groups together 134 civil society organizations and other Cuban entities, expresses its more strongest condemnation of the announcement by the Secretary of State of the United States, Mike Pompeo, of activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act and other measures announced by the government of that country, which constitute a direct attack on the sovereignty of Cuba and its political and economic system.
The Helms-Burton Law, written on the basis of lies and blunt evidence of the interventionist and colonialist pretensions of the United States government, seeks to ignore the sovereign right of a country to the nationalization and expropriation of the property of foreigners and nationals, as well as to choose sovereignly its political and economic system.
Cuban civil society rejects the threat and political blackmail, from the employment of Title III of the Helms-Burton Law, a chapter of extraterritorial scope directed not only to economically suffocate Cuba but to internationalize the blockade by means of coercive measures against third countries, in order to interrupt their investment and commercial relations with Cuba and subject those sovereign States to the will of the United States.
Likewise, it denounces that the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act flagrantly violates the human rights of the Cuban people, directly affects the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for sustainable development in our country and constitutes a frank disregard for the principles enshrined by International Law and the Charter of the United Nations.
This infamous measure imposes additional obstacles to the development of Cuba, hinders the country's insertion in the international economic scenario, at the same time that it seeks to usurp the island's wealth, infrastructure, arable lands, industries, mining resources and the bases on which science and technology are developed and services are provided to the population.
Cuban civil society emphasizes that the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act will not undermine the will of the Cuban people to build their free, independent and sovereign future with the supreme purpose of achieving an increasingly prosperous, sustainable, inclusive and socialist participatory.
In these days when we remember the glorious days of April 1961, when the uniformed people fought and defeated imperialism on the coast of Playa Girón, the words uttered at that time by our eternal Commander in Chief, Fidel Castro Ruz, acquire special validity: "What the imperialists cannot forgive us is that we are here, (...) it is the dignity, the integrity, the courage, the ideological firmness, the spirit of sacrifice and the revolutionary spirit of the people of Cuba"
Havana, April 18, 2019
"Year 61 of the Revolution"
(Cubaminrex-ACNU-EmbaCuba-Polonia)