President Barack Obama made headlines when he announced in December that he was upgrading relations with Cuba. But if you ask the plaintiffs bar, it’s not yet time for Obama and Raúl Castro to light up their Habanos. First there’s the small matter of some $7.5 billion in nationalized U.S. property claims against Cuba and, though they have largely escaped notice, more than $3 billion in U.S. antiterror claims. The Cuban Revolution was not victimless, and the U.S. victims are not powerless.
“From that announcement to a free and democratic Cuba, there’s a big gap,” says antiterror litigator Roberto Martinez of Miami’s Colson Hicks Eidson, who lived through the violent takeover of Santiago before he fled in 1960 at age 7. “Regardless of how the process plays out, we would expect that President Obama will protect the rights of U.S. citizens, and ensure that judgments against Cuba are fully paid.”
