Two US citizens filed lawsuits against Carnival Corporation in the US for docking its ships in Cuban ports. Carnival immediately moved to have these cases dismissed by the court.

The two citizens who claim to hold titles to Havana and Santiago de Cuba ports, charge that Carnival profited from confiscated Cuban property, arguing that the ports were nationalised by Fidel Castro in the 1959 Cuban Revolution. The case brought against the cruise line cited a little-known section of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act which the Trump administration recently announced would take effect on May 2. The law allows US citizens to sue Cuban entities and foreign firms over confiscated Cuban property. This was regarded as an attempt to pressure Cuba over its support for the government Venezuela, the overthrow of which the US is currently advocating. Expectations were that many cases would be brought to court however, only two were filed following the May 2 date. Carnival’s defence is that “by its own terms, trafficking under Helms-Burton does not include uses of property ‘incident to lawful travel to Cuba’. It has also been argued that the travel exemption should shield US carriers doing business with Cuba under licenses granted by former President Barack Obama during the period of detente.