Trump activates Helms-Burton Title III, enabling lawsuits over confiscated Cuban property

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced on April 17, 2019, the 58th anniversary of the Bay of Pigs invasion, that the United States would no longer suspend Title III of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act, allowing it to take full effect on May 2, 2019. Every president from Clinton through Obama had suspended Title III in six-month intervals because of its extraterritorial reach against foreign companies. Title III authorizes US nationals to sue in federal court anyone who profits from property confiscated by the Cuban government after January 1, 1959. The Foreign Claims Settlement Commission had certified approximately 5,913 confiscated property claims totaling $8 billion with interest; early lawsuits targeted cruise lines Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Carnival, and MSC.