Cuba Is Prepared to Offer Compensation to Americans Who Lost Property in the 1959 Revolution

[El Presidente]

https://www.dropsitenews.com/p/cuba-prepared-offer-lump-sum-agreement-united-states-property-lost-revolution

 

Cuba Is Prepared to Offer Compensation to Americans Who Lost Property in the 1959 Revolution

Cuba is willing to put the “lump sum” compensation measure on the table in talks with the U.S., a Cuban official told Drop Site in an exclusive interview.

HAVANA, Cuba—The Cuban government is prepared to offer compensation to Americans and American firms that saw property nationalized after the 1959 revolution, Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos Fernandez de Cossio told Drop Site News in an interview.

The “lump sum” agreement—meaning that Cuba would pay the U.S., which would then handle the claims—would need to be a part of a broader “holistic” deal that would address U.S. sanctions and the blockade and also allow for an amount of American investment in Cuba that previously had been forbidden, he said.

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel revealed last week that his government was in direct talks with the United States. After the New York Times reported that the U.S. officials are pushing for the ouster of Díaz-Canel, Cuba rejected outright the possibility that the Cuban president’s role or the Communist-run political system is up for negotiation.

After the revolution, Cuba negotiated lump sum compensation agreements with countries such as Canada, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Spain, and France, but the United States refused to participate, planning to overthrow Fidel Castro’s government instead.

“[Cuba made] lump sum agreements with the six governments whose property was nationalized in Cuba, all of them had compensation schemes, all of them were compensated with the exception of the U.S.,” said Cossio.

Had compensation been accepted by the United States in the 1960s, Fernandez de Cossio said, studies show the final payments would have been made by the 1980s. The Cuban government today lacks the reserves to make major compensation payments, but with the lifting of the embargo, economic growth could produce revenue that could finance such an arrangement.

Nearly 6,000 American individuals and businesses have filed claims for nationalized property, according to U.S. government data and industry estimates gathered by Bloomberg. With interest, the certified claims are now estimated to total approximately $9 billion.

Compensation, he added, should not just go one way.

“We’re ready to sit down with the United States and discuss these issues; but Cuba also has claims,” Cossio told Drop Site. “We believe the Cuban people and the Cuban nation requires, or deserves, to be compensated for the damage done by the economic blockade, by the invasion, by terrorism, by assassinations, by actions, violent actions against the economy.”

The U.S. State Department did not respond to a request for comment on Cossio’s remarks.

[JohnS]

If this news can be verified by further sources then it would be a huge, huge story. I hope there's more to come out of this because this has always been a stumbling block to ending the US trade embargo.

[anacostiakat]

Bah. What are they going to pay with? They have to go.

[helix]

The worlds grifters trying one last con.

[BrightonCorgi]

I don't see how they could pay back or assert ownership rights.

[Duder]

This will never happen. It’s been too long and the embargo is too big a political bargaining chip. It will go away someday I’m sure but not for a long, long while more. I hope I’m wrong!