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Fidel Castro News

01 Jan 2023

US Judge Orders Norwegian Cruise Line to Pay $110 Million for Use of Cuba Port

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Norwegian Cruise Line must pay $110 million in damages for use of a port that Cuba's government confiscated in 1960, a U.S. judge ruled on Friday, a milestone for Cuban-Americans seeking compensation for Cold-War era asset seizures.The decision by U.S. District Judge Beth Bloom in Miami follows her March ruling that the use of the Havana Cruise Port Terminal constituted trafficking in confiscated property owned by the plaintiff, Delaware-registered Havana Docks Corp."Judgment is entered in favor of Plaintiff Havana Docks Corporation and against Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings…

09 Oct 2020

US Sanctions: Spotlight on Cuba

© Bernd / Adobe Stock

The U.S. maintains a comprehensive sanctions program against Cuba, generally prohibiting all trade between the two nations, subject to multiple exceptions. In a previous article we addressed U.S. comprehensive sanctions generally, focusing on Iran, Syria and North Korea. Because the Cuba sanctions program has several idiosyncrasies that are unique to Cuba we address the Cuba sanctions program on its own.Background to Cuba sanctionsThe Cuba sanctions program is the oldest U.S. sanctions program still in existence.

24 Sep 2019

U.S. Slaps Sanctions on Firms Moving Venezuelan Oil to Cuba

© Marit / Adobe Stock

The U.S. Treasury Department on Tuesday imposed sanctions on four maritime firms and vessels transporting Venezuelan oil to Cuba, amid an acute fuel scarcity in the island that is forcing people to line up for gasoline and public transport.Despite tough U.S. measures against Venezuela's state-owned oil company PDVSA in January, Cuba's state-run oil import and export company Cubametales and other Cuba-based entities "have continued to circumvent sanctions by receiving oil shipments from Venezuela…

26 Dec 2018

Soldier-run PDVSA and AWOL Oil Output

© natanaelginting/Adobe Stock

Last July 6, Major General Manuel Quevedo joined his wife, a Catholic priest and a gathering of oil workers in prayer in a conference room at the headquarters of Petroleos de Venezuela SA, or PDVSA.The career military officer, who for the past year has been boss at the troubled state-owned oil company, was at no ordinary mass. The gathering, rather, was a ceremony at which he and other senior oil ministry officials asked God to boost oil output."This place of peace and spirituality…

23 Feb 2015

Florida Companies Push for Ferry Service to Cuba

Catamaran builder Brian Hall is too young to remember when ferries plied the route between Florida and Cuba in the 1950s, but he has plans to be among the first to revive the once-popular route. Boosted by President Barack Obama's policy of seeking to normalize relations with the Communist-ruled island after decades of U.S. isolation, Hall hopes to offer a high-speed catamaran service between the Florida Keys and Havana, perhaps as soon as this year. "My partners and I are ready to start operating as soon as we get the go-ahead," said Hall, 49, president of CubaKat, an offshoot of Fort Lauderdale-based catamaran builder, KonaCat. He is not alone. At least half a dozen Florida companies are seriously considering ferry ventures, with plans to seek licenses from the U.S. Treasury Department.

21 Apr 2011

This Day in U.S. Coast Guard History - April 21

1838- The passenger steamboat Oronoko suffered a catastrophic boiler explosion while tied up at Princeton, Mississippi that killed over 100 passengers. This was one of three fatal steamboat boiler explosions within as many months that forced the Federal Government to begin regulating merchant steam vessels. 1910- U.S. Government took over the sealing operation of Pribiloff Islands from private lessees. 1924- In an effort to increase the number of cutters available for Prohibition enforcement, Navy destroyers were transferred to the Coast Guard for law enforcement purposes. The Coast Guard was also authorized to commission temporary officers. 1980- Boats with Cuban migrants on board began departing Mariel, Cuba.

21 Apr 2010

This Day in Coast Guard History – April 21

1838- The passenger steamboat Oronoko suffered a catastrophic boiler explosion while tied up at Princeton, Mississippi that killed over 100 passengers. This was one of three fatal steamboat boiler explosions within as many months that forced the Federal Government to begin regulating merchant steam vessels. 1910- U.S. Government took over the sealing operation of Pribiloff Islands from private lessees. 1924- In an effort to increase the number of cutters available for Prohibition enforcement, Navy destroyers were transferred to the Coast Guard for law enforcement purposes. The Coast Guard was also authorized to commission temporary officers. 1980- Boats with Cuban migrants on board began departing Mariel, Cuba.

26 Oct 2009

This Day in Coast Guard History – Oct. 27

1997- The crew of the CGC Baranof confiscated two .50-caliber sniper rifles, ammunition and other military supplies that were allegedly to be used in an assassination attempt against Cuban President Fidel Castro. Four Cuban exiles were arrested for illegal possession of firearms after the 46-foot La Esperanza was ordered into Aguadilla, Puerto Rico, by the Baranof. There a search of the vessel turned up the weapons. One suspect confessed that the sniper rifles were to be used to assassinate Castro on his arrival on Venezuela's Margarita Island for the Ibero-American Summit Conference. A magistrate in the U.S. District Court in San Juan later dismissed the charge of conspiracy to assassinate Castro but let the charges of illegal importation of firearms and making false statements stand.

02 Feb 2006

U.S. Execs to Discuss Cuban Oil Reserves

In the two years since oil reservoirs were discovered off Cuba's coast, Canadian, Chinese, Indian and Norwegian companies have lined up to explore the potentially lucrative Caribbean waters. U.S. oil exploration in Cuban waters - along with most U.S. trade - is prohibited under a 45-year-old U.S. embargo designed to undermine Fidel Castro's communist government. This week, American energy executives meet their Cuban counterparts in the first private-sector oil summit between the two countries. Cubans hope to inform the businessmen of their country's oil potential while undermining the embargo, which has often frustrated American corporations.

23 Apr 2001

Crowley Freighter Fails To Make Appearance in Havana

A U.S. freighter, due to become the first American cargo ship to dock in Cuba for decades because of a trade embargo, failed to show up in Havana harbor as scheduled in the early hours of Saturday. Crowley Liner Service, based in Jacksonville, Fla., confirmed, but gave no explanation for, a last-minute decision to take Cuba off the route of its container ship M/V Orso. "A decision was made last night, Friday, to bypass Cuba and proceed on to Mexico," a Crowley spokesman said. There was speculation in Cuba on Saturday that the ship's entry permission might have been denied by President Fidel Castro's government, perhaps because of a disagreement over its cargo, or because Havana was seeking to avoid an impression that U.S. ships were now in a position to serve Cuba normally.