The lawyer Nick Gutiérrez addressed one of the most pressing questions raised by the Supreme Court of the United States ruling against four cruise lines: what will happen to these lawsuits if Cuba undergoes a democratic transition?
The concern is not new. For years, the idea has circulated that lawsuits over confiscated properties could paralyze a potential transitional government, which would inherit a country in ruins and simultaneously have to deal with dozens of active lawsuits in U.S. courts.
Gutiérrez dismissed that fear by referring to a mechanism that lawmakers anticipated three decades ago: the so-called "extinction clause" of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act.
"As soon as Congress certifies that there is a legitimate transitional democratic government in Cuba... Title III will cease, it will cease to exist," the lawyer explained.
That certification is neither discretionary nor vague. The law establishes specific conditions: the release of political prisoners, elections called within 18 months, the existence of independent political parties, and progress in the restitution or compensation of confiscated properties.
If those conditions are met, Title III will no longer be valid. The 45 pending claims under Helms-Burton —which in total represent "a minimal fraction of all properties confiscated in Cuba," according to Gutiérrez— would likely be resolved through agreements between the parties.
"The lawsuits that have already been filed need to be resolved, and they will likely be settled by agreement at that time," he stated.
Among those 45 lawsuits are recently filed cases: the one involving José Martí Airport, brought by José Ramón López Regueiro; two from the Blanco Rosel family in Mariel, one against Crowley and the other against Seaboard—both cargo shipping lines; and a lawsuit against CGMA, a French shipping company. All these companies had permits from the Department of the Treasury to operate with Cuba.
The model that Gutiérrez proposes for the post-regime period is that of Eastern Europe: “The new government of Cuba will have to do what happened in the Baltic countries, in Czechoslovakia, in Germany, and mostly return to those legitimate owners and, in special cases, compensate them in order to return the economy to private hands.”
He emphasized that this process would not only be a legal obligation but also an act of historical justice, "decades after the dispossessions with no compensation whatsoever."
The ruling on Wednesday, which sentenced Royal Caribbean, Norwegian Cruise Line, Carnival, and MSC to collectively respond for 450 million dollars for using port facilities in Havana that were confiscated from the Castro regime in 1960, opens the door to all the pending claims awaiting this signal from the Supreme Court.
The precedent also comes weeks after American Airlines and Iberostar reached confidential agreements in separate lawsuits under the same law, confirming that judicial pressure on companies operating with confiscated Cuban assets is now a concrete reality.
"Ironically, I believe we will be in Cuba facing a new government, directly demanding the return of these properties long before the federal courts finish their circuitous route," concluded Gutiérrez.
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