Credit: Carnival Corporation:  In 2016, Cuba approved  Carnival Corporation’s Fathom to Cruise from U.S. to Cuba (PR Newsphoto)  Nearly 1 Million people took a cruise into Cuba in 2018 aboard ships operated by 17 different companies including Carnival. 

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Carnival Cruise has become the first company sued under the Trump Administration’s new policy change allowing lawsuits against seized Cuban property. The Trump administration announced last month it is allowing former owners of commercial property expropriated by Cuba to sue companies and the Cuban government for using or “trafficking” in those confiscated holdings.  Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said the U.S.  won’t renew a ban on litigation that had been in place for two decades The Trump administration is activating,  effective today May 2,  Title III of the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD).  Lawsuits will now  be allowed in American courts against Cuban companies using property seized during the 1959 revolution.  CARNIVAL,  the Miami-based cruising conglomerate,  was sued in federal court by Mickael Behn and Javier Garcia-Bengochea, both of whom hold claims certified by the federal government for assets confiscated shortly after the Cuban Revolution.  Behn and Garcia-Bengochea filed their claims on the first day possible after Donald Trump became the first U.S. president to fully enact a provision under the 1996 Helms-Burton Act — or LIBERTAD Act — allowing U.S. nationals and naturalized Cubans to seek damages for property seized by Cuba’s communist government, the Sun Sentinel reported. 

“Americans who have had their private and hard-earned property stolen in Cuba will finally be able to sue,”

-national security advisor John Bolton said last month in Little Havana.

The first of the suits are against Carnival Cruise Lines — a company that has its corporate headquarters in South Florida — relating to confiscated docks it uses to bring passengers into the island nation. The Cuban government confiscated the docks from the Havana Docks Corporation and La Marítima in the 1960s.

Helms-Burton Law Shields Commercial Activities Related To Authorized Travel To Cuba From Compensation Claims,reports the NY Times. 

European Union Warns Of Legal Action Against U.S. Over Cuba Property Claims

Photo by Gary Raynaldo /  The Habana Libre Hotel, located in the Vedado section of Havana, used to be the American-owned  Havana Hilton before Fidel Castro came to power and confiscated it along with other US properties in Cuba. The hotel, currently managed by Spain’s Melia chain,  could become a target of U.S. litigation.

Brussels Vows To Protect The Interests Of EU Companies Doing Business In Cuba.

“The decision by the United States to renege on its longstanding commitment to waive Title III of the Helms-Burton (LIBERTAD) Act is regrettable, and will have an important impact on legitimate EU and Canadian economic operators in Cuba. The EU and Canada consider the extraterritorial application of unilateral Cuba-related measures contrary to international law. “

-Joint statement by High Representative / Vice President Federica Moghernini, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada Chrystia Freeland, Apri. 17, 2019, Brussels. 

“We are determined to work together to protect the interests of our companies in the context of the WTO and by banning the enforcement or recognition of foreign judgments based on Title III, both in the EU and Canada. Our respective laws allow any US claims to be counter-claimed in European and Canadian courts, so the US decision to allow suits against foreign companies can only lead to an unnecessary spiral of legal actions.”