ABSTRACT
After the rafter crisis, members of Congress who sought to apply yet more economic pressure on Cuba rejected the Clinton administration’s interpretation of the Cuban Democracy Act (CDA). The administration’s cautious attempts to reduce sanctions ‘in carefully calibrated ways in response to positive developments in Cuba’ coincided with the progress through Congress of new and very prescriptive legislation: the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act (LIBERTAD), better known as the Helms-Burton Act.2 While its supporters described Helms-Burton as a logical successor to the CDA, it contained provisions that were more offensive to US allies and had graver implications not only for US-Cuban relations but also for the relative roles of Congress and the executive in foreign policy.
