5-19-08, 9:31 am

MADRID.—The U.S. government has closed down a number of Internet web sites operating from Spain, which belong to a British citizen resident in that country and are promoting tourism, as reported in the Madrid Público newspaper.

The measures were taken against Steve Marshall, a Briton resident in Tenerife since 1986 and the owner of a travel agency, for which he runs a number of web pages on culture and tourism in Cuba.

According to the report, last October Washington ordered the U.S. server eNom to close down those sites, using the laws of the blockade of Cuba in place for nearly 50 years.

It adds that the U.S. Treasury Department has stated that Marshall’s Internet addresses, in the main tourist guides, have been included on a blacklist for having commercial links with Cuba.

Marshall took his case to the relevant agencies of the European Union (EU), but they have stated that they are unable to do anything, despite him being a British citizen operating from a EU country with European clients.

The EU Commission justified its inability to act by using the argument that the company owning the webs is legally based in the British Virgin Islands, a territory outside of the EU’s remit.

Marshall has been advised by the EU to present a claim for damages via his Spanish company or to ask the UK government to intercede with Washington on his behalf so that he can transfer his web pages to a European server.

Translated by Granma International