HAVANA (AP) -- The Trump administration is weighing what
could become the most serious tightening of the U.S. trade embargo on Cuba in
more than two decades -- a move that could unleash a flurry of lawsuits against
foreign companies that have invested on the island.
A 1996 law known as the Helms-Burton Act give Americans the
right to sue companies profiting from properties confiscated by Cuba's
government after its 1959 socialist revolution. That potentially could allow
hundreds of lawsuits against corporations around the world, from Spanish
companies that run Cuban hotels to Chinese and Turkish firms renovating Cuban
ports.
But every U.S. president since Bill Clinton has suspended
the key clause, known as Title III, because of its potential to alienate U.S.
allies and complicate any future American detente with Cuba.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday appeared to open
the possibility that the U.S. government might allow that clause to take
effect. He said the administration was suspending Title III again, but only for
a month and a half instead of the six-month suspension that has been constantly
renewed since 1996.
Pompeo said the administration was conducting a careful
review of Title III "in light of the national interests of the United
States and efforts to expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba and include
factors such as the Cuban regime's brutal oppression of human rights and
fundamental freedoms."
Both advocates of better US-Cuba relations and opponents of
the communist government said Thursday that they expected the Trump
administration to allow at least some lawsuits against companies doing business
in Cuba when the 45-day review ends. The lawsuits that follow could create a
huge obstacle to foreign investing in Cuba -- a major escalation of Trump's
relatively cautious approach so far to unwinding President Barack Obama's
historic detente with the island, which began in December 2014.
In a tweet, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio described Pompeo's
statement as "a strong indication of what comes next. If you are trafficking
in stolen property in #Cuba, now would be a good time to get out."
The major American companies doing business in Cuba --
Airbnb, airlines and cruise companies -- could emerge unscathed because the
1996 law contains exemptions for business related to legal travel to Cuba, said
Pedro Freyre, a Miami attorney who represents some of the largest foreign
companies in Cuba. Still litigation against foreign companies would be a
serious blow to a centrally planned economy that's entering its fourth consecutive
year of economic stagnation and struggling to attract badly needed foreign
investment.
The Cuban government launched waves of confiscations and
nationalizations after the 1959 revolution that ended decades of U.S.
domination of the island. Vast swathes of the island were taken from U.S.
corporations, U.S. citizens and Cubans who worked closely with the U.S., and
were placed into state hands.
Many of those properties, from grand hotels to sugar
plantations to ports and airports, are now used in joint ventures between the
Cuban government and companies, mostly European and Asian, whose governments
place no prohibitions on business with Cuba.
"This will have a chilling on anybody who is thinking
about doing business," Freyre said. "It just makes engagement
extremely difficult."
He described the end of Title III suspension as the most
serious U.S. measure against the Cuban government since the passage of the
original Helms-Burton law.
Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez described the Pompeo
announcement as "political blackmail and irresponsible hostility aimed at
hardening the blockade on Cuba."
President Miguel Diaz-Canel said on Twitter that "we
vigorously reject this new provocation, meddling, threatening and bullying, in
violation of international law."
Until now, the Trump administration had taken a measured
approach to the Obama detente, tightening some rules on travel to Cuba and
escalating rhetoric against the island, but mainly leaving Obama's measures
alone.
"If they take this decision they will be moving from a
policy of limiting U.S. engagement with Cuba to a policy of very actively
trying to disrupt the Cuban economy," said Phil Peters, a longtime Cuba
expert and consultant for U.S. businesses in Cuba.