The Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), an arm of the Treasury Department, took the action against Chiron Corp. after the company voluntarily disclosed to the Treasury Department that it had “inadvertently” shipped two vaccines for infants to Cuba between 1999 and 2002 through a European subsidiary. Currently, the company has approval to ship one type of vaccine to Cuba through a UN program.

OFAC is responsible for enforcing Washington’s more than 40-year-long economic war on Cuba, as well as sanctions against six other countries.

The Associated Press reported July 8 that this is the second-highest fine issued by OFAC this year and the highest against a U.S.-based company. Alpha Pharmaceutical Inc., based in Panama City, Panama, was fined $198,700 for trading with Cuba.

Meanwhile, another California-based firm, CancerVax Corp., got the green light July 15 from the Bush administration to pay the Cuban government $2 million a year to develop three experimental cancer drugs created in Havana. Washington required the payments to be made in food and medicine, not cash.

The agreement “is the first such commercial deal approved by the U.S. government between a U.S. biotechnology company and Cuba, which has spent $1 billion on building a biotech program that is among the most advanced in the Third World,” reported the Associated Press.

OFAC also reported that 122 companies were fined this year a total $1.97 million for trading with Cuba, Iran, Iraq, Libya, north Korea, Sudan, and Syria, most of the cases involving violations of the economic embargo against Cuba.

The Treasury Department has fined 226 individuals a total of $348,000 so far this year, claiming they have violated existing laws and executive orders restricting travel to Cuba and laws related to sending money to the island.

In the last three months the number of people who were ordered to pay fines, or agreed to a settlement with OFAC, for travel to Cuba without state authorization was more than 50 percent higher than during the same period last year. Most of the settlements were between $1,000 and $2,000.

With the ultimate goal of overthrowing the socialist revolution and reimposing capitalist rule in Cuba, Washington has maintained a relentless economic war carried out by Democratic and Republican administrations designed to increase the financial pressure on the revolutionary government in Havana.

Earlier this year, the White House announced a new round of measures against Cuba. These impose new limits on travel there by Cuban-Americans, and restrict the number of family members on the island to whom remittances can be sent.
 
 
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Florida: hundreds protest anti-Cuba sanctions  
 
 
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