U.S. Wary Of Push To Buy Claims To Confiscated Property In Cuba

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Tampa Tribune

U.S. Wary Of Push To Buy Claims To Confiscated Property In Cuba
By BILLY HOUSE
The Tampa Tribune
Published: June 17, 2008

Updated:

WASHINGTON - Estela Roberts and her family have always hoped they would be compensated one day for their property in Cuba seized after that country's 1959 revolution.

Roberts, 62, whose family eventually relocated to Miami and then to Tampa, still remembers her family's beautiful home in Havana, down to the "marble staircase with some ironwork."

Along with a summer home in Tarara, a small sugar plantation, a bank and a tobacco store, the total value of the family's confiscated property has been estimated to exceed $3 million.

Decades later, Roberts and her siblings have yet to receive a dime; frozen relations between the United States and Cuba have prevented their claim from being resolved.


Read more: http://southtampa2.tbo.com/content/2008/jun/17/na-speculators-seeking-to-purchase-cuba-claims/

[Tempest]

1. I'd be curious to know

How the family came about owning all their property.

[dbackjon]

2. How much slave labor built it, etc.

Pre-Castro Cuba was very feudal.

[a la izquierda]

3. Wow, I feel so sorry for her.

:sarcasm:

[Judi Lynn]

4. I just noticed for the first time that fireplace on their Havana house. How often do you think

someone in Havana used to really look forward to building a terrific warming fire in a living room in Havana, Cuba?

http://www.liorkaridi.com.nyud.net:8090/Travel/Cuba/Havana_3.jpg

http://newsimg.bbc.co.uk.nyud.net:8090/media/images/44522000/jpg/_44522666_cuba_ap_416.jpg

http://webpages.charter.net.nyud.net:8090/usspiper/havana_cuba_january_1956.jpg

American sailors in Havana prior to the revolution

[jody]

5. I have many Native Americans who are ready to sell claims to their confiscated property. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

7. At least Cuba offered compensation to ALL property owners immediately, and Cuba

has repeated the offer. Owners living in other countries went ahead and settled right after the revolution, and it was over, and done.

It was even discussed in secret meetings between an aide, Richard Goodwin, to John F. Kennedy and Che Guevara.

It's not nearly as dramatic to acknowledge the truth about Cuba, but it surely puts things in a different perspective once people are aware they were OFFERED settlement long, long ago, and declined for political reasons.

[jody]

8. Agree and at least some of the wealthy accumulated their fortunes through near slave labor. n/t

[Judi Lynn]

9. Absolutely! They were simply a plantation colony for ages. That was after

they killed off almost every native Cuban who was there already, using them as slaves first.

The invaders were nothing but barbarians. Hope they enjoyed their excessive wealth.

[dipsydoodle]

6. Life's a bitch

and then you die.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

10. If every Cuban exile I have ever met owned as much land as they claimed to

Cuba would be about the size of Nunavut.

[PSPS]

11. More Batistas trying to milk the US treasury.

[pennylane100]

12. I think the people who lost property in Israel

should also be compensated by the Israeli government, is our government going to address that. At least the Cuban government offered compensation.