Brother Hannibal Blogging: U.S. Extends Cuba Embargo

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama extended for a year the U.S. economic embargo against Cuba under what is known as the Trading With the Enemy Act, the White House said Monday.

“I hereby determine that the continuation for one year of the exercise of those authorities with respect to Cuba is in the national interest of the United States,” Obama said in a Sept. 11 memorandum to Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and Treasury chief Timothy Geithner.

The signing of the measure has become routine, with the embargo being extended year by year.

In this case, however, it takes on a symbolic character since it represents the first extension during the presidency of Obama, who in his first months in power eliminated restrictions on Cuban-Americans’ travel and remittances to the communist-ruled island.

With this signing, Obama indicated he was continuing the embargo imposed in 1962.

The application against Cuba of measures provided for in the Trading with the Enemy Act would have expired Monday if it had not been renewed.

The law, which bans U.S. companies from trading with hostile nations, had its origins in 1917, when it was approved in anticipation of the United States entering World War I.

Under the 1996 Helms-Burton Law, the president must get congressional approval to end the Cuba embargo.

Cuba is the only country in the world subject to sanctions under the Trading with the Enemy Act, after the Bush administration in 2008 chose not to renew its application against North Korea following Pyongyang’s agreement to release details of its nuclear program.

Obama’s decision to renew sanctions comes despite calls from organizations like Amnesty International, which at the beginning of this month urged the U.S. president to repudiate the measure as a first step toward ending the embargo. EFE