The United States and Cuba began discussions Tuesday on one of the thorniest issues in their budding rapprochement: the outstanding claims for compensation by both former Cold War foes.
Washington is seeking payment of between $7 billion and $8 billion for American citizens and companies whose property on the Caribbean island was confiscated by Fidel Castro’s government in the wake of the Cuban Revolution in 1959.
Havana for its part is seeking damages for its losses under the suffocating US embargo imposed in the revolution’s aftermath — an estimated $121 billion to date, according to the Cuban government.
Current Cuban President Raul Castro, the retired Fidel’s younger brother, has warned the negotiations will be “long and complex” — a phrase echoed by Washington ahead of Tuesday’s high-level talks in Havana.
“The meeting is the first step in what we expect to be a long and complex process, but the United States views the resolution of outstanding claims as a top priority for normalization,” said US State Department spokesman John Kirby.
The US delegation is led by State Department legal adviser Mary McLeod, said a statement from Washington.
Cuba for its part has so far kept mum on the new talks.
News site Cubadebate said the Cuban claim included an additional $181 billion for “human damages” caused by the embargo, which the government in Havana calls a “blockade.”
That would bring Cuba’s total claim to more than $300 billion.
On the American side, the nearly 6,000 firms and individuals seeking compensation include Coca-Cola and oil giants Exxon and Texaco.
The talks come just before the first anniversary of the historic rapprochement announced by Presidents Barack Obama and Raul Castro last December 17.
The two former enemies have since reopened embassies in each other’s capitals and announced a series of breakthroughs in talks on thawing their Cold War freeze.
But deeply divisive issues remain untouched, including the ongoing embargo and the future of the US naval base at Guantanamo Bay.
Sooner than later we will be changing our social media profile pictures to the Cuban flag. :nerd
Beautiful mind…DO!No send that out in the universe at all. Me is a Cuban sympathizer from me can read above grade 4 level; what affect dem affect Jamaica as well as simple as it look.
The U.S. owe CUBA BIG F**KING TIME! Let’s begin with the cane fields dem send alpha** fi go bun dung, then we can move on to the unjustified embargo! from me mother inna a nappy.
WELL USA JUST TAKE WAT IS OWE TO THEM FROM WAT THEY OWE CUBA AND KEEP IT MOVING WEH COMPLEX BOUT THAT!!!!!
FYI: The companies the U.S. a look compensation fah was mafia enterprises along with the ones of older names and families that were running the plantocracy system of labor (colonial slavery).
Watch big pharma move in pon cuban scientists fi try offset the “phantom” debts the U.S. a look fah. “Time is the master of all things” and the U.S. shall see the same as Rome did. Afterall, it’s a mock up of ancient Rome.
Predicated on the fact that the embargo was morally unjust and millions of people suffered and died because of that embargo, I am of the opinion that the tally should be in the trillions and not billions of dollars.
No doubt, Cuba did nationalize a lot of American owned business; however, if you were to check the levels, those businesses were never legitimate as Fulgencio Batista was an illegitimate American implant.