Oct 30 (Belly of the Beast) Since 2017, Cuba has been subject to a barrage of U.S. sanctions imposed by Donald Trump and largely kept in place by Joe Biden.
Among the most damaging has been the activation of an obscure but potent provision known as Title III. Part of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, Title III allows U.S. claimants whose property was nationalized during the Cuban Revolution to sue companies for doing business on that property.
In 2022, a Miami judge ruled that four major cruise liners owed $439.2 million dollars to a company led by the grandson of Sosthenes Behn, a Nazi-connected telecommunications tycoon who had held a lease – now expired – to operate a cargo business on three piers in Havana.
It was the first successful Title III lawsuit against a company doing business in Cuba and contributed to chilling investment toward Cuba.
Last week, a federal appeals court overturned the ruling.
Belly of the Beast journalists Reed Lindsay and Daniel Montero exposed the politics and lobbying behind the law enabling the lawsuit and its ruinous impact on Cuba.
Read the article, originally published in The Miami New Times, HERE.
