Cuba, U.S. hold first talks on property claims

PanARMENIAN.Net - Cuba and the United States held the first round of discussions Tuesday, December 8, over one of the most contentious issues remaining between the two countries: the billions of dollars each country says it's owed by the other, USA Today reports.

U.S. citizens and companies say they're owed about $7 billion in property that the Cuban government seized when Fidel Castro took control of the island in 1959. The Cubans say they're owed $181 billion in damages from the economic embargo the U.S. has maintained on the communist nation for five decades. Both sides also claim damages from acts of violence that killed Americans and Cubans throughout the years.

Resolving that massive economic disagreement is one of the biggest impediments to restoring normal relations between the Cold War foes.

On Tuesday, the two sides started bridging the economic gap during a day-long meeting in Havana. A U.S. State Department official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the negotiations, said the discussions were respectful and professional. The official said the two sides presented their claims and explained why they thought the money was owed.

The U.S. side presented claims held by Americans across the country. That includes large companies like Coca-Cola and Texaco that had vast properties nationalized by the guerrillas who rode their revolution into Havana on New Year's Day 1959. It also includes thousands of American citizens whose parents or grandparents lost farms, cars, artwork and investments throughout the island.

On the other side, Cuba claims to have suffered losses from the economic embargo, which was approved by Congress during the Cuban Missile Crisis but has endured long past the fall of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War.