A federal jury in Miami ruled on Monday in favor of Expedia Group in a lawsuit filed by two Cuban-Americans who accused the company of having "trafficked" in properties confiscated by the Cuban regime, according to The New York Times.
The plaintiffs, Mario Echevarría, 91 years old, and Maricela Mata, 66, claimed that the company facilitated reservations at five hotels built on land that belonged to their families before the 1959 revolution, in violation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act.
The evidence that could not be demonstrated
The jury concluded that neither of the two plaintiffs sufficiently proved ownership of the disputed land, which prevented the court from analyzing whether Expedia had acted unlawfully.
Echevarría claimed that his family owned Cayo Coco before the confiscations, but he could not document it.
The lawyer for Expedia, David Shank, made it clear to the jury with a rhetorical question: “Whose is it? I have no idea. That’s for you to decide.”
Mata presented documents to prove that the land on which the Hotel San Carlos de Cienfuegos was built — constructed in 1928 — belonged to his grandfather Antonio.
The defense argued that those documents constituted a commercial registry and not a title of ownership.
Expedia's arguments
The defense argued that the company was unaware that the hotels were built on land claimed by families and that its operations were conducted under the travel licenses issued during Barack Obama's administration.
Expedia ceased operations in Cuba in 2025, following the reversal of those policies by the Trump administration.
A spokesperson for the company expressed their satisfaction: "We are pleased with the jury's decision, which reaffirms the position we have maintained all along."
The plaintiffs' lawyer, Andrés Rivero, responded strongly: “These defendants used these properties in alliance with their Cuban communist partners”.
Second consecutive victory under Helms-Burton
This ruling marks the second legal victory for Expedia in cases related to Cuba.
The first arrived in July 2025, when a federal jury in Delaware ruled in favor of the company in the case known as Sánchez Hill, where the plaintiffs were claiming over 1.7 billion dollars.
The judicial history has more chapters: in April 2025, a jury in Miami awarded Echevarría almost 30 million dollars in the first jury trial held under the Helms-Burton Act.
However, Judge Federico Moreno overturned that verdict months later after determining that Expedia had halted bookings within the legal timeframe. That case remains under appeal.
The structural obstacles of these demands
Paolo Spadoni, an economist from Augusta University in Georgia and a specialist in Cuban tourism, pointed out to the Times that "Expedia's victory highlights the considerable obstacles that Cuban Americans continue to face when filing claims involving properties expropriated decades ago."
The main obstacle, according to Spadoni, is to demonstrate "that they have legally recognizable property rights over the goods in question."
John Kavulich, from the U.S.-Cuba Economic and Trade Council, warned that these setbacks should not discourage those who aspire to make claims under the Helms-Burton Act.
Kavulich cited recent victories such as the ruling of the Supreme Court in favor of Havana Docks Corporation against four major shipping companies for the use of port terminals in Havana that were confiscated in 1960, and the subsequent decision that opened the door for ExxonMobil to sue Cuban state entities for more than 1 billion dollars in expropriated assets.
Certified claims in the United States for Cuban confiscations amount to at least 5,913 cases, valued at around 1.9 billion original dollars and estimated at over 9 billion when including accrued interests, a figure that illustrates the magnitude of the dispossession perpetrated by the regime over decades.
Related videos:
Filed under: