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The thorny relationship between Washington and Havana opened a new chapter on Thursday when the Carnival cruise company became the first company to be sued in US courts for using property confiscated in Cuba by the 1959 revolution.
The lawsuit against Carnival Cruise Lines, based in Florida, was filed Thursday at 1:00 am in federal court in Miami, as soon as this possibility was offered by the government of Donald Trump.
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"This morning (…), for the first time, the US government has given these people the opportunity to file a complaint in US court," said lawyer Bob Martinez to reporters at the entrance of the court.
The plaintiffs are the Cuban-Americans Javier García Bengochea and Mickael Behn, who claim to be heirs respectively from the ports of Santiago de Cuba and Havana.
Both to accuse Carnival of having used without their consent these ports nationalized by the communist government and that, according to them, they were "stolen" from their families.
The Trump administration opened this window by activating, on April 17, the "Title III" of the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, which has since been systematically suspended by US leaders to avoid friction with their allies in the economic interests of the United States. island.
Carnival "was the first cruise line company to benefit from our stolen goods, so it deserves the ignominious distinction of being the first to be prosecuted under this law," Garcia Bengochea said.
Behn, who claims rights to the quays of Havana, He did not hide his emotion by reading his statement.
"In the 1960s, the Castro brothers and their friends in the Communist Party stole my grandfather's property … We can finally get justice after 60 years," he said.
For now, Carnival says it will maintain its operations. "We will continue to offer our visitors our normal cruise program in Cuba," spokesman Roger Frizzell told AFP.
The lawsuit against Carnival is one of hundreds that could reach users of properties nationalized by Fidel Castro's revolution and which promise to clutter the courts of South Florida.
It is expected that in the coming days, the Cuban-American José Ramón López Regueiro will sue the Cuban State and several airlines for the usufruct of Havana's airport, a property private before the revolution.
López Regueiro's father, José López Vilaboy, was the main shareholder of the airport, among other properties. But his badets were confiscated when the revolution deposed his close friend, the dictator Fulgencio Batista.
"There will be hundreds of lawsuits," predicted Nick Gutierrez, legal advisor and president of the National Association of Cuban Landowners, one of the entities that has been the most battered for the # 39, full application of the Helms-Burton Act.
But the decision of the Trump government unleashed a hard fight with the European Union. Federica Mogherini, head of the bloc's diplomacy, said the measure "would create unnecessary friction" and accused Washington of violating trade commitments with its implementation.
Experts agree that Title III will discourage future investment in the island.
Norma Goicochea, Cuba's ambbadador to the EU, said she was convinced that the bloc would protect its investors. "We are not afraid of any investment leak," he told AFP in Brussels.
Former President Barack Obama softened his stance towards Cuba in 2014, but Trump has backed down and strengthened his sanctions against what he calls the "troika of tyranny", formed by Cuba, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
In this context, the activation of Title III seeks to weaken the Cuban government, that Washington considers as the puppeteer of the leaders Nicolás Maduro, in Caracas, and Daniel Ortega, in Managua.
Now, potential investors who have an interest in the United States will think twice about whether the transaction includes a confiscated property, said Jason Poblete, an expert in international sanctions.
"The cloud of political risk has always existed, but now this cloud may have crystallized a bit and is no longer just a political risk, but also potentially legal," Poblete said.
Source: AFP
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