Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 110 Part 1.djvu/838

 110 STAT. 814 PUBLIC LAW 104-114 —MAR. 12, 1996 for the full resumption of economic and diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba. , TITLE III—PROTECTION OF PROPERTY RIGHTS OF UNITED STATES NATIONALS 22 USC 6081. SEC. 301. FINDINGS. The Congress makes the following findings: (1) Individuals enjoy a fundamental right to own and enjoy property which is enshrined in the United States Constitution. (2) The wrongful confiscation or taking of property belonging to United States nationals by the Cuban Government, and the subsequent exploitation of this property at the expense of the rightful owner, undermines the comity of nations, the free flow of commerce, and economic development. Fidel Castro. (3) Since Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959— (A) he has trampled on the fundamental rights of the Cuban people; and (B) through his personal despotism, he has confiscated the property of— (i) millions of his own citizens; (ii) thousands of United States nationals; and (iii) thousands more Cubans who claimed asylum in the United States as refugees because of persecution and later became naturalized citizens of the United States. (4) It is in the interest of the Cuban people that the Cuban Government respect equally the property rights of Cuban nationals and nationals of other countries. (5) The Cuban Government is offering foreign investors the opportiuiity to purchase an equity interest in, manage, or enter into joint ventures using property and assets some of which were confiscated from United States nationals. (6) This "trafficking" in confiscated property provides badly needed financial benefit, including hard currency, oil, and productive investment and expertise, to the current Cuban Government and thus undermines the foreign policy of the United States— (A) to bring democratic institutions to Cuba through the pressure of a general economic embargo at a time when the Castro regime has proven to be vulnerable to international economic pressure; and (B) to protect the claims of United States nationals who had property wrongfully confiscated by the Cuban Government. (7) The United States Department of State has notified other governments that the transfer to third parties of properties confiscated by the Cuban Government "would complicate any attempt to return them to their original owners". (8) The international judicial system, as currently structured, lacks fully effective remedies for the wrongful confiscation of property and for unjust enrichment from the use of wrongfully confiscated property by governments and private entities at the expense of the rightful owners of the property.

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