Senate, Defying U.S. Allies, OKs Tighter Cuba Embargo

WASHINGTON —  Ignoring angry protests from the United States’ closest allies, the Senate passed legislation Tuesday that would tighten sanctions on Cuba so stringently that foreign companies doing business there could face lawsuits in U.S. courts.

Until recently, the legislation had been opposed by President Clinton, who agreed with the Canadian and European governments that its provisions would impinge on the right of other countries to engage in international commerce and investment.

But, in the wake of the shooting down of two private planes by the Cuban air force on Feb. 24, Clinton changed his mind and accepted the bill with some alteration.

In a letter sent to Senate leaders shortly before the vote, Clinton described the bill as “a strong, bipartisan response that tightens the economic embargo against the Cuban regime and permits us to continue to promote democratic change in Cuba.”

The Senate passed the bill by a vote of 74 to 22. The House is expected to approve it by an overwhelming majority today and send it to the White House for the president’s signature.

Even as the Clinton letter circulated in Congress, protests came from outside the United States. At a meeting in Grenada, Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien and the leaders of the 14-member Caribbean Community and Common Market issued a statement expressing their “strongest objection to the extraterritorial provisions of the bill.”

In an official protest to the State Department, the governments of the European Union, warning that the bill’s provisions “have the potential to cause grave damage” to relations between the United States and Western Europe, urged the Clinton administration “to prevent it from being enacted.”

“Should the legislation be adopted,” the 15 governments went on, “the European Union intends to defend its legitimate interests in the appropriate international” forums. This appeared to be a threat to take the issue to the new World Trade Organization as a possible violation of the rules of international commerce.

The European, Canadian and Caribbean protesters are most exercised by a provision of the bill that would allow a Cuban exile to sue a foreign company in a U.S. district court if that company was using property confiscated from the exile by the Fidel Castro regime. In addition, corporate officers and controlling stockholders of such a company would be denied visas to the United States.

To induce Clinton’s acceptance, Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and Rep. Dan Burton (R-Ind.) agreed that the president could suspend the lawsuit provision for six months at a time if he determined that this was “necessary to the national interests of the United States and will expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba.” But this did not satisfy the protesters.

The European Union, which includes such American allies as Britain, France, Germany and Italy, said it objects to the lawsuit provision as a matter of principle because the provision attempts to give U.S. courts jurisdiction over disputes between Americans and foreign companies overseas. The Europeans said the suits and the denials of visas “would offer the possibility to U.S. firms for legal harassment against foreign competitors that choose to do business in Cuba.”

The Canadian government has tried often to head off passage of the bill. Canadian companies have invested in more than 30 joint ventures in Cuba, and trade between the two countries now comes to $515 million a year.

In Havana, Cuban officials have insisted repeatedly that passage of the Helms-Burton bill will harm the United States as well as Cuba. Noting that there is little chance now of the United States lifting sanctions against Cuba, Ricardo Alarcon, president of the National Assembly, said: “What better guarantee for any European businessman that they will never have U.S. competition in Cuba?”

He said that the provision allowing Cuban exiles to sue in federal courts would “create a true nightmare for the United States.”

Meanwhile, Cuban television broadcast an interview with Ruben Martinez Puentes, the Cuban air force general who gave the order to fire at the civilian planes.

Before the shoot-down, he said, Cubans had forced six planes out of their airspace. The planes had filed flight plans in Miami indicating they would be flying over international waters north of Cuba, he said. The information could not be immediately confirmed.

The general’s comments could foreshadow Cuba’s defense before an international pilots organization that will evaluate the shoot-down.

Times staff writer Juanita Darling in Havana contributed to this report.