A US court ordered 4 cruise companies to pay almost $450 million for using the port in Havana, which was nationalized by the Cuban government in 1960.
The ruling, issued by a federal judge in Florida on Friday, requires Carnival, MSCSA, Royal Caribbean and Norwegian to pay $109 million to Havana Docks, a US company that had the right to use the facility.
These companies will also pay legal fees, bringing the total to about $450 million.
Havana Docks was denied the right to use the port after the revolution on the Caribbean island.
The court found that the companies whose ships stopped in the port of Havana “received large sums of income (hundreds of millions of dollars each) from illegal trading activities, causing damage to the plaintiff,” Judge Beth Bloom wrote in the decision.
The US has imposed an economic embargo on the island since 1962.
Former US President Barack Obama eased embargo measures in 2016 to allow cruise lines to stop in Cuba, but his Republican successor, Donald Trump, reversed the decision.
However, the current ruling is not based on a ban, but on a provision in the Helms-Burton Act of 1996, which has not yet come into force.
At the time, the US Congress sought to discourage investment in Cuba by allowing any American whose property was confiscated by the Castro government to sue those who benefited from its use, but successive US presidents withheld this measure until Trump did not make a decision in 2019. to activate it.
A series of lawsuits followed, with cruise lines registered in other countries but with a significant presence in Florida being the first case.
In March, Judge Bloom found four airlines guilty of “illicit trade” and “prohibited tourism” and the verdict was handed down on Friday.
“Given the deterrent purpose of the law and the nature of the crime, a fine of just over $100 million per defendant is certainly reasonable,” the judge said in her decision.
The participating companies responded that the Obama administration had allowed them to travel to Cuba and that they were subject to a “legal travel” exemption, but Blum refused.
The decision is subject to appeal, but it could have serious consequences for the Cuban economy, already affected by the crisis, which could prompt potential investors to reconsider their decisions.
Source: AFP.