Speaking in Miami on 17 April, the 58th anniversary of the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, National Security Advisor John Bolton announced the end of virtually all non-family travel to the island and new limits on the amount of money Cuban Americans can send home to family.
He confirmed that the US government would fully implement Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, allowing Cuban Americans to sue foreign companies with investments in any property nationalized after the Cuban Revolution in 1959.
For 23 years, Title III of the Helms Burton Act had been suspended by every US president as a result of opposition from foreign governments. When Helms Burton was enacted in 1996, the European Union filed a complaint with the World Trade Organisation and passed a law prohibiting EU members from complying it. Mexico, Canada and the UK also passed similar laws.
In response to the US measures, Josefina Vidal, who was a key negotiator with the US during the Obama rapprochement process and is the current Cuban ambassador to Canada said:
“This is a policy which is condemned to be defeated again…. They want Cuba to surrender. They want Cuba to abandon what Cuba is, to abandon its principles, and to submit Cuba again to the desires of the US. But that won’t happen.”
Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, the Cuban president recognized that the US had chosen a significant date to make the announcements and tweeted:
“58 Anniversary of Girón: The victory that #US does not forgive.
John Bolton met with the defeated in Miami, to recall the eternal disgrace of these mercenaries. We will make each calendar day a #GirónAlways
Bolton will be an eternal loser. #CubaWillWin”.