MIAMI – A United States judge has awarded the largest amount of any US lawsuit filed against the Castro government in Cuba.
Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Beatriz Butchko awarded US$2.8 billion judgment against Cuba to an exile veteran of the CIA and the Bay of Pigs.
Legal experts say collecting on such judgments against Cuba is the toughest part of the process. But the huge award to Gustavo Villoldo could spark a massive hunt for Cuban assets by anyone seeking a commission.
“I am very happy with this finding. It’s justice,” said Villoldo, whose lawsuit alleged that former Cuban President Fidel Castro and Ernesto “Che” Guevara, his comrade-in-arms, persecuted him and his family, and seized their properties, to the point where his father committed suicide in 1959.
His Miami lawyer, Andrew C. Hall, who has collected on several US lawsuits against Libya, Sudan and Iraq for terrorist actions, said he would try to collect part of Villoldo’s award from Cuban state-owned enterprises that do business abroad.
Villoldo, 75, and his brother Alfredo, 72, already had won a US$1.2 billion award against Cuba in 2009, ordered by Miami-Dade Circuit Judge Peter Adrien.
At the time, that was the highest judgment ever against Cuba in a US court. But a legal problem with that lawsuit led him to re-file it with Judge Butchko, who awarded them US$2.8 billion, including $1.4 billion for the seized properties.
Hall said the refiled lawsuit focused more on the allegations of Cuban abuses, including threats against Villoldo’s father, also named Gustavo, that his family would be killed if he did not surrender all his properties to the government.
Cuba’s government never defends itself against such lawsuits in US courts, so the judgments against it are almost automatic. (CMC)
