“What happens if you inherit the claim when your father passes away and leaves you this deed, this proof of ownership, but he died in 2010?" Lopez said. "The purpose of the Helms-Burton Act is to help get a remedy for the people that had their property stolen. If you go by a strict interpretation, thousands and thousands of people will be out of luck because their parents died.”
Under Trump, U.S. policy toward Cuba is undergoing a remarkable reversal. In 2015, America reopened its Havana embassy after decades of post-revolutionary diplomatic silence. The next year, Barack Obama became the first president to visit the city since Castro took power, promoting warming relations and heralding a potential rollback of the decades-old embargo.
U.S. economic policy had failed to achieve the goal of forcing Castro and his brother, Raul, from power, but many Cuban-Americans blasted the new approach as too soft on a brutal, anti-democratic regime.
Lopez said he hopes Trump keeps ratcheting up the pressure.
“These are foreign companies that are going to be held accountable, but the Cuban government still hasn’t," he said. "That shoe hasn’t dropped yet, and that shoe needs to drop.”
This article was provided by Bloomberg News.