Madrid 19th December. Yesterday, the event “Regulatory Compliance: Summary of 2019 and perspectives for 2020” took place in Hotel Bless de Velázquez, organized by Informa Consulting.
The topics discussed during the event were the following:
- The prevention of money laundering
- The relationship with regulators and corporate governance
- Protection of personal data
- International sanctions
Our Founding Partner Lupicinio Rodriguez and Ana Myriam Camacho, Director of the International Area spoke about international sanctions. They began the session by highlighting that these sanctions are a varied set of political and legal measures adopted by the United Nations, institutions of economic integration processes with regulatory powers or some States and that affect certain States, social and political groups or natural or legal persons.
It was then emphasized how economic sanctions have the immediate objective to economically affect the subjects against whom they are imposed and, as an ultimate goal, the limitation of the material capacity of those sanctioned to manoeuvre, or the imposition of pressure on individuals or groups to adopt or trigger changes that are in the interest of the subject that imposed the sanctions. To exemplify this, the cases of countries sanctioned by the European Union were presented, for example: Russia, Venezuela, Turkey, Nicaragua or Egypt. The lifting of the suspension of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act was also discussed.
Ana Myriam Camacho explained how the U.S. government’s sanctions against Cuba have been imposed through presidential/executive orders based on various laws whose purpose is to protect the United States against countries and powers considered “enemies” of the country. She indicated that the Legislative Branch has joined this purpose and its most important example is the “Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (Freedom) Act of 1996”, also known as the aforementioned “Helms-Burton Act”.
Title III is the most notorious due to the latest developments this year. Its application had been suspended since the entry into force of the Helms-Burton Act in 1996, a suspension that has been left without effect by the United States Government and which therefore determines the full applicability of Title III since 1st May 2019.
Finally, Ana Myriam clarified that this notoriety of Title III is mainly due to the content of its section 302, which establishes that “any person who, three months after the enactment of this law and thereafter, traffics in property confiscated by the Cuban government as of January 1, 1959 shall be liable to any United States citizen who demands compensation for that property. The presentation ended with a round of questions answered by both lawyers.
