US to allow first lawsuits against Cuba over seized property

To turn up pressure on Cuba’s communist government, the Trump administration is reversing longstanding practice and allowing U.S. citizens to sue certain Cuban companies over property expropriated decades ago, officials said Monday.

U.S. officials said they intend to hold government and military leaders in Cuba accountable for homes, businesses and land seized after the late Fidel Castro rose to power in a 1959 revolution.

The administration, however, stopped short of including among the potential targets for legal action European, Canadian or other foreign-owned companies that have invested on the island.

The decision to shield them from lawsuits may have been a gesture to allies who have joined the United States in a campaign to oust the autocratic leader of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro. Punishing companies from other countries would erode the international support that Trump’s advisers have been keen to develop and maintain in the Venezuela campaign.

Even without the foreign companies, Monday’s reversal of practice could badly disrupt U.S. trade with Cuba and have other consequences. The decision effectively tightens an economic embargo that Washington slapped on Havana nearly 60 years ago.

It addresses a long-dormant provision of the 1996 Libertad Act (also known as the Helms-Burton Act), a law that imposed numerous restrictions on Cuba and U.S. dealings with the island. The provision allowed American citizens to sue to regain expropriated property or to be compensated for it, but it was immediately waived out of fear of flooding U.S. courts with extremely complicated cases.

Each administration since has renewed the waiver every six months, as required by law, until now.

Secretary of State Michael R. Pompeo, in a statement, announced that the waiver was being partially lifted to allow limited lawsuits. He set a 30-day period to examine the impact and determine additional actions.