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CUBA NEWS IN BRIEF.

Article Excerpt
Under pressure from the publishing industry and academic presses, the Treasury Department has dropped rules prohibiting the editing and publication of academic and literary work from Cuba and two other sanctioned countries. The top US diplomat in Havana provoked a confrontation with the Cuban government about a political display included among Christmas decorations in front of the US Interests Section building. Canadian oil-exploration companies announced a new oil discovery off the coast of northern Cuba. The oil is of a higher grade than currently produced and could move Cuba toward energy independence.

Publishing sanctions relaxed

The Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) announced Dec. 15 that it was easing restrictions on the publication of scientific and literary works by authors in Cuba, Iran, and Sudan--countries under US sanctions. The announcement canceled previous OFAC restrictions that forbade US firms from publishing the work of writers, including dissidents, in the three countries.

The previous restrictions had derived from a controversial OFAC reading of the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act, which gives the president authority to regulate business transactions with a declared enemy. A 1988 amendment by Rep. Howard Berman (D-CA) exempted "informational materials" from regulation under the act.

But in 1989, OFAC reinterpreted congressional intent by declaring that the Berman Amendment did not apply to works that were "not fully created and in existence at the date of the transactions," or any "substantive or artistic alteration or enhancement of informational materials." In effect, OFAC claimed the power to block publication of all new works and to prohibit ordinary editing such as proofreading and fact checking. OFAC was now exposed to the accusation that it considered correcting grammar a form of trading with...