By TIM ALEXANDER

Illinois Correspondent

CHICAGO, Ill. — Recent sanctions and penalties announced by the Trump administration and National Security Advisor John Bolton that strike against the “troika of tyranny” – Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua – will “end the glamorization of socialism and Communism,” according to Bolton.

They will also likely hinder already fragile agricultural trade relations between the United States and Cuba, according to the U.S. Agricultural Coalition for Cuba (USACC).

“We don’t know all the answers and the guidelines, and we are not sure when we are going to get them,” said a frustrated Paul Johnson, executive director of the USACC and Illinois-Cuba Working Group (ICWG). “We do not know how the travel restrictions will be applied, but Title III and Title IV of the Helms-Burton Act are pretty clear.”

Title III of the Act allows U.S. citizens to file lawsuits in U.S. courts against foreign companies “trafficking” in property confiscated after the 1959 Cuban revolution. While previous administrations waived the provision for six months at a time, the Trump administration said it will no longer offer such waivers or suspensions.

Title IV disallows Cubans and other individuals found to be trafficking in such property from obtaining a visa to visit the United States. The reinstatement of the measures will likely serve to tighten the trade embargo with Cuba, pundits state.

The new policies, announced in March, also include sanctions on Venezuela’s central bank and a financial services provider in Nicaragua the administration considers a “slush fund” for its president, Daniel Ortega, Reuters news service reported.

In addition, Bolton announced the U.S. would impose a “non-family” flight restriction to the three countries, limiting the amount of money Americans can spend on tourism or other activities there.

“This is just the beginning. As long as the people of Cuba, Venezuela, and Nicaragua stand for freedom, the United States will stand with them,” Bolton said in a news conference announcing the penalties.

How do the newly announced sanctions affect ag trade? Depending on the particulars of the announced flight and business restrictions – which have yet to be clarified by the administration – likely quite a bit, according to Johnson, an expert on Cuban trade relations who has visited the nation dozens of times to meet with agricultural and political leaders.

“Concerning the travel restrictions, we need the ability to protect agricultural groups and individuals being able to travel to Cuba as they are now, under a general license for ag trade or professional meetings. Those are categories that are currently permitted, and they allow us to interact with Cuban officials, set up trade deals, explore cooperatives, and work with farmers without having to go to the U.S. Treasury Office of Foreign Asset Control to get a specific license,” he explained.

“We need to make sure the restriction will be exempt for us. Treasury doesn’t really want to add more work to their table by having to approve all of the license requests; that would be onerous and time-consuming.”

Reinstatement of titles III and IV from Helms-Burton (ratified in 1995 in an effort to unseat the late Cuban President Fidel Castro and his Communist regime) are directly harmful to agricultural trade, Johnson explained.

“There are a lot of people in our industry who are very concerned about this unknown. It will impede future and existing trade we have with Cuba. Banks are concerned about how their role could be impacted in facilitating lines of credit to Cuba, and that puts a brake on export sales,” he said.

“We are trying to get clarity from the administration as to how this affects agricultural trade. We know we can’t do business with any companies or individuals that are tied to the Cuban military, but Title III goes somewhat beyond that, and I don’t know where that ends.”

The sanctions and penalties came amid U.S. pressure on Venezuela and the international community to recognize opposition leader Juan Guaido as interim president and end the rule of President Nicolas Maduro. The actions can also be considered an attempt by the U.S. to speed the fall of current Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel’s government.

“Cuba and Venezuela are tied together because of Cuba’s alleged support for Venezuela’s government. But you can also look at this as a proxy war on Cuba, to allow the administration to go after Cuba because they are aiding and abetting Venezuela,” Johnson explained. “But everyone can agree that these new sanctions aren’t going to get Cuba to budge; they have been sitting on sanctions for 60 years.

“An aggressive attitude from Trump, Bolton, and (Florida U.S. Sen.) Marco Rubio aren’t likely to cause them to cave. Meanwhile there are oil shortages, electricity outings, a dearth of food supply and goods, and Cubans are really bracing for this pending crisis.”

A modern-day Cuban “people’s revolution” is the more likely result of the sanctions, he thinks. “We may see thousands of Cubans showing up in lifeboats on the coast of Florida because they are not going to be protesting, they are going to be fleeing. The motive behind the administration's policy towards Cuba is simply to hobble Cuba. Anything that disrupts Cuba or the Cuban people is exactly what they are trying to do. There is a humanitarian issue at stake here.”

Despite a 60-year overall trade embargo with Cuba, the U.S. was the leading exporter of agricultural products to the island nation from 2003-12, before falling behind to Brazil and the European Union. In 2014, then-President Barack Obama announced the U.S. would re-establish diplomatic relations with Cuba and begin easing trade restrictions, leading many U.S. ag commodity and equipment groups to resume negotiations with Cuban non-military customers.

That changed when the Trump administration began systematically unraveling the trade progress made with Cuba, culminating with the latest announced sanctions and penalties.