Colorado Firm Hit by Cuba Blockade

By Circles Robinson

One of Cuba's beautiful beaches off bounds to ordinary US citizens because of their government's travel ban.
One of Cuba's beautiful beaches off bounds to ordinary US citizens because of their government's travel ban.

HAVANA TIMES, Sept. 18 – A Boulder, Colorado company was the latest to be fined as a violator of the US blockade on Cuba, reported the Denver Post on Friday.

Technically speaking, Platte River Associates, was punished for “trading with the enemy,” and fined US $14,500 “for working on a project that involved Cuba.”

Platte River Associates sells computer software that aids in oil and gas exploration, noted the Post.  Cuba is hard at work to expand its oil production to meet the country’s needs.

The blockade has been in place for nearly a half century and was just renewed for another year by US President Barack Obama.

Obama said continuing the hostile policy towards Cuba, maintained by the last ten administrations, is in “the national interest” of the United States.

The United Nations General Assembly will once again review the effects of the US blockade during September and vote on a Cuban resolution calling on Washington to take off the stranglehold on the island’s economy.

Since 1992, each year the UN General Assembly has pronounced itself on the US blockade and the vote has been increasingly against a policy which has caused US $96 billion in damages.  In 2008, a total of 185 countries told Washington to end the blockade and only two joined the US in favoring its continuation.