In his speech given in Havana (14.08.2015) the Secretary of State of the United States, John Kerry, established the actions that the Obama administration plans to execute with respect to Cuba, including the efforts realized and to be realized with the Congress, to attempt to achieve the lifting of the blockade.

Some parts of the speech Mr. Kerry pronounced in Spanish, surely to avoid a modification in translation and so that the message would come directly to all those present. In Spanish he clearly stated:

 
"We are neither enemies nor rivals, we are neighbours" 

This phrase of Mr. Kerry is very important, along with his description of the efforts of the Obama administration to achieve the end of the blockade.

 
I believe that within something like twenty days, obviously very soon, President Obama has the opportunity to realize an action that will ratify is efforts for the elimination of the blockade and that Cuba and the United States will not be enemies or rivals, but neighbours.

 
On September 5 2014 President Barack Obama extended for Cuba, for one year more, the Law of Commerce with the Enemy, which is an action that is part of the continuing blockade against our country.

 
The Trading with the Enemy Act was approved by the Federal Congress on October 6, 1917 and gives the President the power to restrict trade with countries "hostile" to the United States. Section 5 (b) delegates to the maximum chief of the Executive the possibility of applying economic sanctions in a time of war or in any other period of national emergency, and prohibits trade with the enemy or their allies during conflicts of war.

 
In virtue of this law, the oldest of its kind, the Regulations for the Control of Cuban Activities were adopted in 1963, after the blockade against Cuba was declared in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy. Cuba is the only country for which this legislation is applicable since, in 2008, it was suspended for North Korea. Other countries such as China and Vietnam were objects of the application of this legislation in the past.

 
Even though the White House has never declared a national emergency with respect to our country since 1959, successive US presidents have extended this law with respect to Cuba. In addition to this legislation, the legal framework of the blockade is ample and complex since it involves other laws and administrative regulations such as the Foreign Assistance Act (1961), the Export Administration Act (1979), the Cuban Democracy (Torricelli) Act (1992), the Helms-Burton Act (1996) and the Export Administration Regulations (1979). 

The action of extending the Trading with the Enemy Act to Cuba has been annual, so that it is a routine procedure of the White House, that after 50 years has not renounced this obsolete and failed policy towards Cuba. Meanwhile, the internal debate in the US in favour of a change in policy increases and the US government is isolated by the overwhelming majority of States that voted in favour of a Cuban resolution calling for the elimination of the economic, commercial and financial blockade that is presented every year in the General Assembly of the United Nations since 1992 (1).

 
After having heard the pronouncements of the Secretary of State, Mr. Kerry, in which he declares that Cuba is not an enemy nor a rival, but a neighbour, it would not be in accord with this if President Obama, at the completion of another year since the extension of the Trading with the Enemy Act, were to extend it again for another year, until September of 2016.

Now Obama, who has in his power to not include Cuba under this law, can provide a demonstration of seriousness in his proposals and that he is fulfilling a policy that is consequent and directed to improve the relations with Cuba.

Go ahead, Mr. Obama, go ahead, Mr. Kerry. Show us that when you say something, you do not change your opinion.
 
Your neighbours are asking for this, not your enemies. 
(Translated for ALAI by Jordan Bishop) 
 

Note:
(1) Cubaminrex/ General Direction of the USA.

 
- Dr. Néstor García Iturbe is the editor of the electronic bulletin El Herald (Cuba) sarahnes@cubarte.cult.cu