The Cuban companies Corporación CIMEX S.A. and the Cuba Petroleum Union (CUPET) have taken formal steps, through their lawyers, to defend themselves in a federal court of the District of Columbia, in the United States, before the lawsuit filed by the multinational ExxonMobil, under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act.
It is not the first time, nor is it unusual, for Cuban entities to defend their interests in the US judicial system. Since 1960, they have done so on more than 40 occasions, and have obtained favorable verdicts in several cases.
The oil company ExxonMobil was the first large corporation to sue Cuban companies before a US court after the activation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, on May 2 of this year.
The Helms-Burton Act is a legal and political instrument of the aggression of the U.S. government against Cuba, which seeks to perpetuate and internationalize the economic, commercial and financial blockade, as well as to frighten and threaten businessmen from third countries, who legitimately invest or keep business on the island.
Approved by the US Congress in 1996, the “Helms-Burton” violates and disrespects International Law, and is harmful to the sovereignty of other States, which unanimously reject it in the United Nations.
It also designs, in its Title II, an abusive plan of recolonization of Cuba, unacceptable to the people of Cuba.
The essence of this legislation lies in the impotent resentment against our country, based on the use of lies and blackmail, recurring weapons of the political machinery of the US Government.
As Cuban and international jurists have argued, this Law rests on many falsehoods. The most recurrent is that the fair and legitimate process of nationalization, which took place in Cuba in the 1960s, was improper and illegal.
The Cuban State has repeatedly repeated that the “Helms-Burton” is inapplicable in the national territory, and that it does not recognize or recognize any legal effect. On the contrary, it will promote as many actions as it deems necessary to prevent its application, as dictated by the Law of Reaffirmation of Cuban Dignity and Sovereignty of 1996.
Addendum: Attorneys Michael Krinsky and Lindsey Frank from the New York firm Rabinowitz, Boudin, Standard, Krinsky & Lieberman will be representing CIMEX and CUPET.
A part of this article was written by Dianet Doimeadios Guerrero, Journalist at CubaDebate was first published in CubaDebate.cu. It has been translated by Cuba Business Report staff.
Originally published in Spanish on the Cuban website – CubaDebate.cu.
