From the South Florida Business Journal:
Exile family threatens to sue U.S.
Stephen Van Drake
A Cuban exile family this week threatened to force the United States into trade warfare with the European Union over foreign hotel chains that operate luxury resorts on 100 acres of prime oceanfront property Fidel Castro confiscated 43 years ago.
The Clinton and Bush administrations "have done their best to drag their feet," failing to enforce a law penalizing companies that traffic in stolen property, said Nicholas J. Gutierrez Jr. of Miami, lawyer for dozens of adult members of the Sanchez-Hill family, most of whom live in South Florida. Before Castro's takeover, the family owned 100,000 acres in Cuba.
The clan plans to sue the government in January, forcing the Department of State to deny U.S. visas to employees of Madrid-based hotel giant Grupo Sol Meliá under 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act (known as the Helms-Burton Act).
The Sanchez-Hills would also sue Sol Meliá in Miami, seeking $100 million for usurping its land, Gutierrez said.
Sol Meliá operates five resorts on 30 acres of his clients' land, he said. The Spanish company manages a total of 20 resorts with 8,580 rooms in Cuba with plans to open its 21st property next year, said Monica Cerdá, Sol Meliá's Madrid communications director.
If the Sanchez-Hill family prevails, five other foreign hoteliers with five resorts squatting on 70 acres of family oceanfront property would probably settle, Gutierrez said.
But the winding road to reparations promises many detours and potholes, international lawyers and Cuban trade experts say. Helms-Burton has become a paper tiger, and it's unlikely the Sanchez-Hill family will see any dollars from Sol Meliá.
The Sanchez-Hills, and up to 300,000 Cuban-Americans must resolve their claims in Cuba once there's a new regime - not in Miami. Otherwise, South Florida's courts would logjam, they said.
Besides, the United States and Cuba must first settle 5,911 claims worth $15 billion by U.S. corporations against the island nation certified by the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, under the Cuba Claims Act of 1964 before lifting the embargo and normalizing relations.
Full text:
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