One Woman’s Claim to Cuba

In 2005, a Midwestern university received a federal grant to study an aspect of Fidel Castro’s revolution that is oddly being overlooked these days.

To the victor goes the spoils, and so when Castro overthrew Fulgencio Batista, he soon seized the country’s assets as well. That meant land, railroads, production plants, hotels, and utilities owned by U.S. and other foreign interests. Payback for the pilfering is the theoretical basis for the economic embargo that has curtailed relations between the U.S. and Cuba for five decades.

USAID commissioned Creighton University in Omaha, Nebreaska to study what should happen with the claims by rightful owners should Cuba ever establish a government that the U.S. would deem acceptably democratic. And as the university undertook its work, one employee there found herself immersed in what could become a grating annoyance, if not an all-out halt, to those eager for a Cuba free of U.S. economic sanctions. What’s more, it seems Carolyn Lamb has a growing cadre of people behind her efforts.

Lamb, an event planner for Creighton, holds one of the more than 5,900 claims against what Castro nationalized. The U.S. Treasury in 1972 approved as valid claims that were estimated to have a total value of $1.8 billion. Interest has raised their estimated worth to $6 billion.

But many of the corporations holding the largest claims have merged or no longer exist. Their one-time CEOs are dead. In some families, descendents of the original claim-holders have lost sight of the significance of the claims, striking them down as family lore.

That isn’t stopping Lamb. She has created a website, operates a blog, and has acquired a database of the original claimants and is tracking them down, one by one. Some of those contacted are thrilled, and more than a few are well-connected enough that Lamb’s work is gathering strength and influence.

Efforts are underway to hire a lobbyist. With politicians and investors practically salivating at the idea of an open and free Cuba, that’s just what the activists will need to further their intentions.

Lamb’s deceased father, Edmund Chester, was a CBS radio and television executive credited with opening up South and Central American markets. He bought 4,400 shares of stock in Cuba’s telephone system, a year before Castro came to power. He also owned land. In 1967, the stock alone was valued at $490,000.

Lamb knew about the land deeds her family held, and she assumed the stock was in some sort of frozen account status. She’d never heard of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission, the U.S. entity that oversees the claims. That is, not until law and political science professors at Creighton began their work.

The way will likely get ugly. There is evidence that foreign hedge funds have tried to buy up the claims, convincing uninformed descendents to the claims that they are not valuable. Lamb has a lawsuit against an international corporation that was the telephone company’s dominant shareholder and has subsequently found ways to still deal in Cuba, despite the embargo.

Among the ideas discussed in the Creighton study is the possibility of congressional action to alter previous agreements on what constitutes a “democratic Cuba.”

That might be necessary, along with a loan from the U.S. or international banks, to satisfy the claims before U.S-Cuba relations can normalize.

Lamb is rightfully offended that the claims are rarely, if ever mentioned by congressional leaders who in growing numbers are visiting Cuba and returning their eyes aglow with future investment possibilities.

The default assumption among many seems to be that expecting repayment from the Castro brothers is foolhardy. It’s an interesting position given that resolving the claims is tied to the action the U.S. has arrogantly clung to for 50 years now—the largely ineffective economic sanctions.

To not address the claimants appropriately would be the lynchpin in the long history of U.S. political failures regarding Cuba.