Updated: May 31 / 2019

Cruise Line Carnival Seeks Dismissal in Lawsuit Regarding Cuba Docks

Cruise line Carnival Corp is asking a U.S. court to dismiss the current lawsuits against them that claim the company profited from confiscated Cuban property, which are the first cases that were brought up since the Trump administration made them possible this month.

According to the case, two U.S. citizens who claimed to hold titles to the Havana and Santiago de Cuba ports that were nationalized by Cuba after Fidel Castro’s 1959 leftist revolution filed lawsuits against the cruise line in the Florida U.S. District Court in early May for docking there.

The suit followed after the Trump administration announced a long dormant and controversial section of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act that would take effect on May 2, allowing U.S. citizens to sue Cuban entities and foreign firms over confiscated Cuban property.

The law is part of a broader attempt by the United States to force Cuba over its support for Venezuela’s embattled government by aiming for Havana’s beleaguered economy.

Of Friday, Cuba sought out to reassure foreign investors at an event in Havana, claiming that only four lawsuits had been filed so far, despite the United States saying there could be hundreds of thousands. Both Canada and the European Union have stated that they will use blocking legislation to protect their companies.

“Helms-Burton has no application here,” according to a filing in the case by Carnival on Thursday. “First, by its own terms, trafficking under Helms-Burton does not include uses of property’ incident to lawful travel to Cuba’.”