US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo warned foreign businesses Wednesday to steer clear of formerly private properties seized by Cuba -- and said he was considering allowing lawsuits over such assets in US courts.
Pompeo said he was reviewing whether to move forward on a section of a 1996 law that would allow Cuban exiles to sue both private companies and Cuba itself for profiting on properties nationalized after Fidel Castro's 1959 communist revolution.
US administrations have systematically used their authority to delay implementation of the measure every six months -- but Pompeo said he was issuing a suspension for only 45 days. Pompeo said in a statement that US President Donald Trump's administration would conduct a "careful review" over the period, which will begin on February 1.
The administration will look at "efforts to expedite a transition to democracy in Cuba and include factors such as the Cuban regime's brutal oppression of human rights and fundamental freedoms and its indefensible support for increasingly authoritarian and corrupt regimes in Venezuela and Nicaragua," he said.
"We call upon the international community to strengthen efforts to hold the Cuban government accountable for 60 years of repression of its people," he added.
"We encourage any person doing business in Cuba to reconsider whether they are trafficking in confiscated property and abetting this dictatorship."
Disclaimer: No Business Standard Journalist was involved in creation of this content