Cuba Commemorates Its 1960 Nationalizing Certain U.S. Properties

On August 10, 2015, Cuba’s official newspaper, Granma, reiterated the August 6, 1960, announcement of Cuba’s Nationalization Law, dated, July 6, 1960, which authorized the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister “to order jointly, through resolutions, when they consider appropriate for the defense of national interest, the nationalization via obligatory expropriation of property and companies owned by individuals or incorporated entities of the United States of America, and companies with interests or participation of such persons, regardless of their constitution in accordance with Cuban laws.” [1]  Pursuant to that Law, on August 6, 1960, the following companies were nationalized by expropriation:

1. Compañía Cubana de Electricidad.
2. Compañía Cubana de Teléfonos.
3. Esso Standard Oil, S.A. División de Cu­ba.
4. Texas Company West Indian.
5. Sinclair Cuba Oil Company, S.A.
6. Central Cunagua, S.A.
7. Compañía Azucarera Atlántica del Gol­fo, S.A.
8. Compañía Central Altagracia, S.A.
9. Miranda Sugar States.
10. Compañía Cubana, S.A.
11. The Cuban American Sugar MilI.
12. Cuban Trading Company.
13. The New Tuinicú Sugar Com­pa­ny.
14. The Francisco Sugar Company.
15. Compañía Azucarera Céspedes.
16. Manatí Sugar Company.
17. Punta Alegre Sugar Sales Com­pa­ny.
18. Baraguá Industrial Corporation of New York.
19. Florida Industrial Corporation of New York.
20. Macareño Industrial Corporation of New York.
21. General Sugar States.
22. Compañía Azucarera Vertientes Ca­magüey de Cuba.
23. Guantánamo Sugar Company.
24. United Fruit Company.
25. Compañía Azucarera Soledad S.A.
26. Central Ermita, S.A.

The Granma article did not mention that Cuba has not provided compensation for these expropriations or that in the mid-1960’s the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States validated 5,913 claims for such compensation totaling $1.9 billion (now estimated to amount to $7 billion). A prior post discussed that work of the Commission and proposed submitting these claims for resolution to the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague in the Netherlands.

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[1] Pérez, Cuba nationalizes U.S. companies, Granma (Aug. 10, 2015).