There was a remarkably silly concession a while back where Cuba agreed to donate its proceeds from the Baseball Classic to victims of Hurricane Katrina. I’m going to take that hurricane connection for a little walk….
The question was brought up by Oatney in a post earlier this morning.
There were and are, in fact, many Cuban families in the U.S. that were run out by the Castro/Communist regime there. When that regime is finally gone, would it be right to tell them "well, you can’t go home now?"
No… not that they "can’t go home". Just that they have no claims on the properties they used to own. Go to Cuba…by all means… but just don’t expect it to be as it was before.
Property rights are a function of government. It is the acting government that issues the title for your property. It is well understood that the British deeds on US land still held by descendents of the loyalists that fled the US are valuable only as historical artifacts. Likewise, the government that issued the titles that Cuban exiles retain no longer exists - and never will exist again.
It is only by coercing a new government into recognition of the old deeds that Cuban exiles can regain their properties without having to purchase them. Enter the US’s Helms-Burton act which promises to ensure exactly that - provided you were wealthy at the time of your losses (i.e., that your property was then worth more than $50K US).
[How the U.S. means to ensure these property rights while simultaneously claiming it wants the new Cuban government to be a democracy is a mystery... since you can't ensure outcomes in a democracy. Well, it's not a real mystery... basically, if you want the money and support to be able to survive as a new government, you have to democratically choose the outcomes we're telling you to implement....]
This is why the only workable scenario is to consider the Cuban Revolution exactly as a hurricane: You lost your house way back in 1959, dude!
In fact, it may be that some of the losses that will be claimed were compensated by insurance in a similar manner to what happens after a hurricane. It’ll be interesting to wait for people to recover their properties or compensation and then find that their insurance companies paid those claims back in early 1960!
Cuban exiles should be able to return to Cuba and buy back their houses from the people that have been living in them for years - on the open market. Is it unfortunate that this grants a capital asset to people that, more likely than not, were communist stooges? Very much so. But slice it any way you like and you’ll find that it’s the only scenario that will improve support in Cuba for a transition to democracy.
There are some other aspects of the property problem that are ignored - but interesting to consider. 1959 was some time ago… a couple of generations. My late grandfather, for example, had several houses and a bit of land in the backwater hamlet of Jaguey Grande - a couple of hours East of Havana. The main house (nothing to brag about by any means… the non-biodegradable roof only went up on it a few years ago….) is now my aunt’s. Everything else was confiscated and given to stooges or taken for the government. OK… my aunt would likely retain title to the main house. Simple enough.
Now consider the rest of "our" property. Who claims that? Who is the rightful "family" member to lay the claim? Does it have to be somebody that actually lived there… or can it be a descendant? Shall it be my father in Miami… my uncle in Indiana… my cousin in Tampa by my other (deceased) aunt? Or shall it be any of fifty or more other descendants? … or shall we just fight it out?
Imagine if we were fighting for a house in Miramar on the Havana waterfront and you may begin to see where reviving 47-year-dead titles may not be such a good idea after all.
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