US President Barack Obama can resort to his executive prerogatives to modify the implementation of the Cuba blockade policy, which was adopted more than half a century ago.
An article published in Granma newspaper on Wednesday notes that although the US Congress is the body empowered to decree an end to the blockade of Cuba, that act can be preceded by the elimination of most restrictions established by that policy, through executive actions.
When President William Clinton signed the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, also known as the Helms-Burton Act, on March 12, 1996, the blockade of Cuba and the network of executive orders that support it were approved as a law.
That way, the newspaper says, the president's prerogatives to lead Washington's foreign policy on Cuba, regarding the lifting of the blockade, were transferred to the Congress.
However, at the same time, that same law grants full authority to the head of State to approve, through licenses, transactions established by the Federal Code of Regulations of the United States.
There are only four aspects that the president cannot modify, adds Granma, as they have to be eliminated or modified by congressional action, as they are regulated by US laws.
First, the prohibition on the branches of US companies in third countries to trade goods with Cuba, as established in the Cuban Democracy Act of 1992, also known as the Torricelli Act.
Second, the impossibility of making transactions involving US properties that were nationalized in Cuba, which is banned by the Helms-Burton Act.
Two other prohibitions were established by the Trade Sanctions Reform and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, which prevents US citizens from traveling to Cuba as tourists, and forces the Caribbean island to pay in cash and in advance for purchases of US agricultural products.
Apart from those four restrictions, enshrined in the aforementioned US laws, the president can resort to his executive prerogatives to modify the implementation of the Cuba blockade policy, stresses the newspaper.
An example of that presidential authority was Obama's announcement of several measures to modify some blockade regulations on December 17, 2014.
Later, on January 15, 2015, the Departments of Treasury and Trade published the administrative regulations to implement the measures announced by the president, which came into force the next day.
This can be the procedure to be followed from now on to eliminate most economic, financial and commercial restriction that the US government has imposed on Cuba.
The modifications made by Obama, Granma points out, are far from being everything that the president can do, as several sectors and experts in the US know very well.