The US has continued to tighten the provisions for the decade-old trade embargo on socialist Cuba. Legal action against Cuba-based companies and government agencies seeking to confiscate property confiscated after 1959 should be possible in the future, the State Department said yesterday in Washington. This should also apply to Cubans with American passports.
The government of Fidel Castro has unlawfully deprived private individuals of their property for decades without any compensation, the US State Department said. For the first time since 1996, such actions are made possible in principle – all previous governments had always suspended the possibility anchored in the law.
Step with symbolic character
The move is presumably purely symbolic, as the 200 listed companies and governmental entities from Cuba have no independent business or financial ties in the US and are thus hardly tangible for the US judiciary. Joint ventures, such as with European companies, should not be affected.
The US has targeted Cuba as one of the most influential factors in the Venezuelan crisis. Washington assumes that Cuba is responsible for some of the corruption in the military that keeps the government of President Nicolas Maduro in power.
