Clash looms on titles to properties in Cuba

Posted on Sun, Aug. 20, 2006

CUBA
Clash looms on titles to properties in Cuba
Some Cuban Americans are contemplating the possibility of reclaiming
their properties and their heritage when or if it is ever possible to
return to Cuba.
BY AMY DRISCOLL
adriscoll@MiamiHerald.com

Lourdes Sampedro Pañeda remembers the grand marble entrance, the tiled
interior courtyard with splashing fountain and the gracious staircase of
her beloved childhood home in Vedado, an upscale section of Havana.

Sampedro Pañeda's sister, a nun, had an opportunity to see the old
Havana homestead a few years ago. The marble had been stripped, not a
tile was left in the courtyard, but the emotional draw remained -- even
if the faded mansion now goes by a new name: the National Center for Sex
Education, an institute run by Raúl Castro's daughter, Mariela.

''If a family was living in there, I would be reluctant, but belonging
to the government? I want it back,'' Sampedro Pañeda said. ``Five girls
and one boy -- we were all born in that house that was [built] by my
grandfather. It should be in the family, not as much for the value as
for sentimental reasons.''

As Cuban Americans dig up decades-old plans to file property claims,
expecting a power shift in their homeland to lead to democracy once
Fidel and Raúl Castro are gone, Sampedro Pañeda's family members may be
better off than most. They have a thick sheaf of papers brought secretly
out of Cuba that they say details their ownership of the property,
before Fidel Castro. That's exactly the sort of proof that helped
establish claims in Eastern European countries after communist regimes
failed.

BUSH'S VIEW ON CUBA

President Bush fired a warning shot at exiles recently when he outlined
his view of Cuba's future. He said Cubans on the island must be allowed
to determine their own form of government, ``then Cuban Americans can
take an interest in that country and redress the issues of property
confiscation.''

His remarks came shortly after the administration's Commission for
Assistance to a Free Cuba issued a report in July, warning that ``no
issue will be more fraught with difficulty and complexity . . . than the
status of property rights and confiscated properties.''

Raúl Castro's assumption of provisional power may not be the broad
opening for democracy that Cuban Americans are looking for, but for many
families, it reinforces the feeling that it's time to reconsider -- and
reconfigure -- plans laid decades ago.

''Whether it's five months or five years, the beginning of the end is
here,'' said Nicolas Gutiérrez, a Miami attorney who says a quarter to a
third of his practice is now devoted to property reclamation issues. ``I
have original owners, mostly in their 70s and 80s, and lately children
and grandchildren are becoming more involved.''

Gutiérrez said his older clients still want to go back, ''although with
age and health, that becomes less likely,'' he said. ``And the newer
generations, they see themselves as the ones who will help rebuild Cuba.
. . . It'll be a lot of work for lawyers at some point.''

The scion of a Cuban sugar mill family, Gutiérrez is now president of
the National Association of Sugar Mill Owners of Cuba and has been
setting up limited-liability corporations for families that hope to
pursue claims in the event of a new, democratic Cuban government. The
corporations would shield the family assets in the case of a court
dispute, he said.

Starting in the early 1960s, Castro expropriated property worth millions
of dollars from U.S. companies and the Cuban people -- assets estimated
to be worth in the billions. American citizens and companies were able
to file claims with the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission. The claims
remain unsettled.

The United States responded with a trade embargo and in 1996 followed
with the Helms-Burton Act, which tightened the embargo, seeking to
punish those who do business with the communist regime.

But none of that has helped Cuban Americans reclaim ancestral homes or
family businesses taken from them by the Castro regime. For them, time
has added complexity to an issue that once seemed as simple as plain
theft. The island's population has increased, and many homes have been
subdivided into apartments where people have now lived for years. Most
homes have fallen into expensive disrepair, commercial buildings have
been torn down and land has gone fallow.

Wary of their image on the island, many Cuban-American leaders have been
choosing their words carefully, saying over and over that they do not
want to put Cubans out on the streets.

`KNOW WHAT IT'S LIKE'

In a ''statement to the Cuban people,'' the Cuban American National
Foundation says it is ''vehemently opposed to any intent to displace
Cuban families from their homes or parcels of land in which they reside
or work,'' proposing to transfer title to those already living in the homes.

Added Ninoska Pérez Castellón, a Miami Cuban radio host and spokeswoman
for the conservative Cuban Liberty Council: ``I know what it's like to
lose what you have, and I wouldn't want that for anyone else. . . . And
if people go back, they're going back to claim -- what? They've probably
done better for themselves here, 10 times over.''

To Carlos Saladrigas, who leads the moderate Cuba Study Group in Miami,
the debate is best framed in terms everyone can understand.

''I believe the fear of losing a home is one of the biggest fears, and
it can slow down change,'' Saladrigas said. ``This is not a time to be
pressing these claims. Most likely, the old houses we remember might be
a little smaller than we thought they were. But the really important
thing is that the Cuban people have suffered greatly, and we have to
make sure that change is not going to bring more suffering to them but
actually bring relief.''

Some Cuban Americans, especially the younger generations, don't care to
reclaim property after so much time, particularly if it penalizes those
who remained.

''Most of the people I talk to aren't interested in putting people out
on the streets when they've been living in a home for decades,'' said
Tania Mastrapa, who began a Miami-based firm, Mastrapa Consultants, to
help people prepare for restitution claims. ``In those cases, they may
be more interested in some sort of compensation with money or other
land. But there's no way every single person will be happy with the
outcome.''

The trick, she said, will be finding ``a balance between economics and
justice.''

Mastrapa, a Cuban American whose family lost property to the Castro
regime, favors restitution efforts in part because she sees them as a
healing process.

''It's not necessarily motivated by greed,'' she said. ``Many people
pursue claims out of a sense of familial duty. I know my grandfather
taught me everything about the old family farm and cattle ranching.''

RECLAIMING A LEGACY

i Isabel Blanco, a Cuban American born and raised in the United States,
grew up intimately familiar with the details of her family's interrupted
life in Cuba: the escape through Mexico in the early 1960s; the
pharmaceutical company taken over by the government; the assets frozen;
and how her mother, stopped at the airport, had to ''donate'' her coat
to the Cuban revolution.

''I've heard that coat story at least a hundred times,'' Blanco said.

But her father died 10 years ago at 81, leaving her and her brother
feeling a new responsibility to pursue some sort of claim in Cuba if the
time were right.

''It was pretty much assumed that we were going to get our property back
or get some kind of restitution,'' she said. ``It was an unspoken
assumption that we would do it if he was gone.''

A single mother of two girls who works as a financial analyst, Blanco
sees a future Cuba through a lens of both business and culture.

''Maybe they can structure a deal where people get a condo on the beach
in exchange for land, or some other type of exchange,'' she said. 'I
wouldn't want to kick anyone out. I'd like to see an arrangement where
there's peaceful coexistence. And I'd like to offer my services to help
carry out the dream of my parents' generation.''

But for many older exiles, the dream is still alive, with a few minor
modifications.

Arturo J. Riera, president of the Association of Cattlemen of Cuba, said
he would return to the island at age 67 -- but keep his house in Miami, too.

''If there was any possibility I could help, I would,'' he said.

``My great-grandfather and my great-great-grandfather died fighting the
Spaniards. We had 6,600 acres stolen from us. We would like the chance
to work that land, help rebuild Cuba.

``So, I would do it not just for economic reasons but for patriotism. .
. . I am Cuban by chance and American by choice.''

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