Havana, January 17 (RHC)-- On January 12th and 13th, the United States fined a U.S. non-profit organization and a Canadian bank for alleged violations of regulations under Washington's nearly six decades-old blockade of Cuba.

The U.S. organization Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy (ARCP) and the Canadian bank Toronto Dominion (TD), were fined $10,000 and $955,750, respectively, by the U.S. Treasury Department.

According to a report from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC), between August of 2010 and September of 2011, the Alliance for Responsible Cuba Policy coordinated trips to Cuba for U.S. citizens, in violation of the existing travel ban.

Toronto Dominion, for its part, has been held responsible for transactions it conducted within the U.S. banking system for a Canadian company, which owns a Cuban enterprise. OFAC indicated that between 2003 and 2011, the bank carried out operations related to financing commercial activity ban by the blockade.

The new fines, imposed just one week before the Obama Administration leaves office, fully demonstrate the persistence of Washington's economic, commercial, and financial blockade of Cuba, and its extraterritorial nature, damaging Cuba's development and violation international law and regulations.

Since the historic announcements by both governments on December 17, 2014, that they were moving toward normalizing bilateral ties, the US government has imposed fines on 11 entities (7 from the U.S. and 4 from other countries), amounting to nearly 3 million dollars, for doing business with Cuba.