-DATE-
19730928
-YEAR-
1973
-DOCUMENT_TYPE-
REPORT
-AUTHOR-
F. CASTRO
-HEADLINE-
CUBA FREEZES ALL CHILEAN ASSETS: TEXT OF DECREE
-PLACE-
CUBA
-SOURCE-
HAVANA, GRANMA
-REPORT_NBR-
FBIS
-REPORT_DATE-
19730927
-TEXT-
CUBA FREEZES ALL CHILEAN ASSETS: TEXT OF DECREE

[Text of decree by Council of Ministers; Havana, Granma, Spanish, 28
September 1973, p 2]

I, Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado, President of the Republic of Cuba,

Hereby proclaim that the Council of Ministers has taken, and I
have ratified, the following decision:

Whereas in our sister republic of Chile a military coup of fascist
and proimperialist character has taken place which by the use of force,
exercised with criminal ferocity, has interrupted the continuity of the
legitimate government of the nation and has even caused the death of the
constitutional President, Dr Salvador Allende Gossens, who fell while
fighting with unparalleled heroism in defense of his mandate and in
fulfillment of his duties and responsibilities to the people who elected
him and to the ideals of social, economic, and cultural transformation that
were the basis of his governmental program; and

Whereas the military junta that is attempting to set itself up as
the government of the Republic of Chile lacks any legal authority to do so
and is of course unable to base its action on the well-known theory of
political law which proclaims that revolution is a source of law, inasmuch
as this military coup was directed precisely toward interrupting the
revolutionary process which was being carried out by peaceful means in our
sister nation and the action of the junta was completely unsupported by
popular participation and is designed to reverse the process of structural
change that the Popular Unity government had succeeded in carrying out, and
for all the foregoing reasons its essentially counterrevolutionary nature
is obvious; and

Whereas said military junta is not basing its authority on popular
consent but is attempting to impose its authority by means of bayonets,
mass murder, torture, and imprisonment, which fact likewise reveals its
inability to perform the functions of government; and

Whereas the monstrous crime committed against the Chilean people
in the form of this coup by fascist military men has aroused an
extraordinary revulsion throughout the world on the part of peoples, social
organizations, and governments of all ideologies and social systems; and

Whereas the foregoing consideration support the firm decision of
the Revolutionary Government of Cuba not to recognize the said military
junta, or any other administrative government that might in the future
succeed it as a mere substitute of said junto in the capacity of a
government of Chile, and also the decision of said Revolutionary Government
of Cuba to deny any status as governmental representative of Chile to the
members of said junto or any administrative body acting as its successor,
and therefore also to deny recognition of the legitimacy or authority of
those persons who may be designated in Chile to administer the various
state and parastate agencies; and

Whereas all the foregoing considerations involve the necessity of
freezing -- until Chile has a legitimate government recognizable as such --
all assets, including all credits, deposits, bank balances, monetary funds,
and securities of any kind, whether stock shares or rights, either situated
or exercisable on Cuban territory which are in whole or in part owned by,
demandable by, or reclaimable by Chilean state or parastate organs or by
juristic persons -- whatever the form of same, including corporations -- in
which the Chilean state per se or through the instrumentality of state or
parastate organs participates or holds shares of any type, or in which it
has any interest of whatever nature, either direct or indirect; and

Whereas the military who staged the coup did, in a cowardly and
criminal manner, attack our embassy in Santiago de Chile, causing damage to
Cuban property and injuring our ambassador and other Cuban citizens, all of
which creates a right to monetary compensation; and

Whereas aircraft of the Chilean Air Force and surface units of the
Chilean Navy attacked, in international waters, the merchant ship "Playa
Larga," owned by the Cuban state, in a cowardly and criminal action,
causing serious damage -- likewise subject to compensation -- to said
vessel; and

Whereas the assets and rights of the Chilean state that are set
forth in the sixth whereas of the present law constitute a substantive
guarantee of compensation for the said damages, it is therefore proper that
said assets and rights be frozen in consequence of the demands that the
Cuban state and Cuban citizens shall establish.

The Council of Ministers, in consideration of the foregoing, and
in use of the powers conferred upon it, has therefore resolved to
promulgate the following

Law No 1256

Article 1. All assets, including all credits, deposits, bank
balances, monetary funds, and securities of any kind, whether stock shares
or rights, either situated or exercisable on Cuban territory which are in
whole or in part owned by, demandable by, or reclaimable by Chilean state
or parastate organs or by juristic persons -- whatever the form of same,
including corporations -- in which the Chilean state per se or through the
instrumentality of state or parastate organs participates or holds shares
of any type, or in which it has any interest of whatever nature, either
direct or indirect, are hereby declared to be frozen.

Article 2. Those assets which are frozen under the mandate of the
present law shall not be made available until such time as a government is
established whose legitimacy can be recognized by, and is acceptable to,
the Revolutionary Government of Cuba without prejudice to those demands
which the Chilean state is obligated to satisfy by way of compensation to
the Cuban state for the damage and other losses sustained by the assets of
the Cuban state and its agencies, enterprises, or citizens as from 11
September 1973.

Article 3. The National Bank of Cuba shall be responsible for
compliance with the provisions of the present law and shall register all
those credits, deposits of money or securities, bank balances, and monetary
funds that will be frozen.

Article 4. Any and all provisions of law or regulations that would
obstruct compliance with the provisions of the present law -- which shall
be published in the Gaceta Oficial de la Republica (Official Journal of the
Republic) -- are hereby abrogated, and the present law shall be fully in
effect as from 11 September 1973.

In consideration of the foregoing, I hereby order compliance with,
and execution of, the present law in all its parts.

Done this day of 27 September 1973 in the Palace of the
Revolution, in Havana.

Osvaldo Dorticos Torrado

Fidel Castro Ruz, Prime Minister

Raul Roa Garcia, Minister of Foreign Relations
-END-