Trump DOJ supports Cuba lawsuit against cruise lines: Seatrade Cruise News reports that the Trump administration’s Department of Justice has asked the Supreme Court to review an appeals court decision siding with four cruise lines that had used Havana’s docks decades after they had been nationalized by the Cuban government. Havana Docks Corp, which sued Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, and MSC, was the first plaintiff to win a final judgment under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, though its award of approximately $440 million was overturned by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in October 2024. The court found that Havana Docks’ concession to operate and profit from the docks expired in 2004 (twelve years before they were used by the cruise lines as part of the Obama administration’s opening to Cuba) and that Havana Docks did not own the property itself but rather operated under a concessionary agreement. In the submission of its views to SCOTUS, the Solicitor General said that the Havana Docks case “involves a significant United States foreign-policy interest” and is important as a “bellwether for future Title III cases,” arguing that it is the Trump administration’s policy not only to “deprive the Cuban government of funds that undermine the United States’ longstanding embargo of Cuba” but to “increase economic pressure to achieve democratic reforms in Cuba.” For more information on the backchannel lobbying campaign by Havana Docks and its collaborators to convince the Trump administration to activate Title III of the Helms-Burton Act for the first time in 25 years, see this 2023 investigative report in the Miami New Times. https://www.seatrade-cruise.com/finance-legal-regulatory/trump-doj-supports-cuba-lawsuit-against-cruise-lines

Expedia wins defense verdict on billion-dollar Helms-Burton Act claim: A jury in Delaware federal court has sided with Expedia Group in a lawsuit brought under Title III of the Helms-Burton Act in which the plaintiff sought $1.7 billion in damages for trafficking in confiscated property that was previously owned by the Cuban-American Sanchez Hill family. The plaintiff, Central Santa Lucia (CSL), alleged to own the claim to a 100,000-acre area of coastal land in Cuba where several resort hotels are now located, saying that Expedia Group trafficked that property when its affiliates facilitated online bookings at those hotels. Yet only individuals who were U.S. citizens at the time when Helms-Burton became law can file suits under the statute, and Expedia’s attorneys uncovered evidence that CSL had forged documents that had assigned the rights to the certified claim to 13 family members who were U.S. citizens before the law was signed in March 1996, leading to the unanimous verdict for Expedia. A separate Helms-Burton case against Expedia in which a jury ordered payment of nearly $30 million to a Cuban-American man, Mario Echevarría, who claims to own expropriated property in Cuba’s Cayo Coco, in which Expedia allegedly trafficked, is ongoing, with the plaintiff most recently rejecting Expedia’s motion for a new trial. https://www.scottdoug.com/sdm-wins-defense-verdict-on-billion-dollar-helms-burton-act-claim/

Record U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba, which pays in cash due to sanctions: Washington correspondents Jim Cason and David Brooks of the Mexican daily La Jornada report that U.S. agricultural exports to Cuba increased 17% from January to May 2025 compared to the same period last year, topping $200 million. The $37 million in food and agricultural products shipped overwhelmingly to Cuba’s private sector in May alone marks a monthly record, John Kavulich of the U.S.-Cuba Trade and Economic Council told the authors. While the majority of these exports are basic products like frozen chicken legs, a staple in Cubans’ diet, the increase in sales can be attributed to higher-end goods sold in private Cuban stores that are prohibitively expensive for most residents on the island. Per the Trade Sanctions and Export Enhancement Act of 2000, Cuba can legally purchase food from the U.S. if paid for in cash in advance, and the billions of dollars in one-way trade over two decades have often been used by sanctions proponents to allege that Cuba sanctions either do not exist or have no impact on the island. https://www.jornada.com.mx/noticia/2025/07/28/mundo/exportacion-record-de-eu-a-cuba-que-paga-en-efectivo-debido-al-bloqueo

China’s spy chief pledges more intelligence sharing with Cuba, months after U.S. jitters: The South China Morning Post reports that China’s state security chief Chen Yixin pledged increased intelligence sharing to Cuba’s interior minister Lazaro Alberto Alvarez Casas at a recent meeting in Beijing. Chen said that China was ready to work with Cuba to implement agreements made by Chinese president Xi Jinping and Cuban president Miguel Díaz-Canel at their meeting in May, just days after a Congressional hearing scrutinizing the alleged presence of Chinese surveillance sites in Cuba. The hearing, chaired by Cuban-American Rep. Carlos Gimenez (R-FL) and stemming from a CSIS report claiming a signals intelligence facility in the Cuban town of Bejucal has been upgraded in recent months, led to calls from hardline lawmakers for the Trump administration to take further steps against Cuban-Chinese collaboration. In Beijing, Cuba’s interior minister, who is subject to stiff U.S. sanctions, also met with Wang Xiaohong, China’s public security minister, who said China was willing to increase personnel exchanges with Cuba and build more law enforcement capacity. “China firmly supports Cuba in upholding its national sovereignty, opposing external interference and blockade, and advancing its economic and social development,” President Xi told Díaz-Canel in May. https://www.scmp.com/news/china/politics/article/3323027/chinas-spy-chief-pledges-more-intelligence-sharing-cuba-months-after-us-jitters

Rep. Salazar (R-FL) asks State, Treasury departments to investigate FL companies supporting Cuban private sector: Cuban-American Rep. María Elvira Salazar (R-FL), Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on the Western Hemisphere, sent a letter to the State and Treasury Departments requesting investigations into South FL-based companies sending food, medicines, vehicles, and humanitarian parcels to relatives and private sector entrepreneurs in Cuba through both general and specific U.S. government licenses. In the letter, Salazar expressed concern that the firms, which create hundreds of jobs and generate millions in taxes for her district, may be violating U.S. sanctions on Cuba—which prohibit most business dealings with the Cuban government—given the taxes and customs duties recipients on the island pay to Cuban authorities. Salazar’s effort follows a Congressional hearing she convened last year alleging that Cuba’s private sector was a “myth” created by Cuban authorities to evade U.S. sanctions, which generated swift backlash from House Democrats, U.S. officials, and Cuban entrepreneurs themselves, whose retail sales recently surpassed those reported by state owned firms for the first time in decades. https://salazar.house.gov/media/press-releases/rep-salazar-sends-letter-demanding-investigation-and-action-against-companies#

New official takes on key role with strategic mission at U.S. Embassy in Cuba: Miami’s El Nuevo Herald reports that the U.S. Embassy in Havana has a new Deputy Chief of Mission, career foreign service officer Roy Perrin, who will replace Elias Baumann as the #2 U.S. diplomat in Cuba. Perrin, a New Orleans native and Tulane Law graduate, has prior experience serving the U.S. government in Venezuela, Costa Rica, Turkey, and China, and most recently served as the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. In Washington, Perrin has served as Deputy Director of the State Department’s Office of Central American Affairs, among other roles. His post in Havana comes after the recently celebrated 10th anniversary of the formal re-establishment of diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Cuba, which have waned in the first six months of the second Trump administration under Secretary of State Marco Rubio. https://www.elnuevoherald.com/noticias/acceso-miami/article311809063.html

Grenada foreign minister rejects U.S. claims that Cuba’s medical missions are ‘forced labor’: The Miami Herald reports that Grenada’s foreign minister has pushed back on the State Department’s assertions that the eastern Caribbean nation, which has had a long-standing relationship with Cuba, is exploiting Cuban doctors and other medical professionals in order to enrich Cuba’s government. “Regarding the charges of so-called forced labor and human trafficking, we will never be party to anything of that nature,” Joseph Andall, the foreign minister, said. “Grenada respects all international conventions and protocols regarding the protection of human dignity, and we are quite satisfied that the Cuban medical program with us is totally above board and in compliance with our international labor and human rights standards. So we have no qualms about being able to defend them.” The pushback came after Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced visa restrictions against officials from Grenada, Brazil, the Pan American Health Organization, and unnamed African countries over their role in Cuba’s labor export program. Just this week, Grenada’s Finance Minister, who in March said he’d be willing to give up his U.S. visa in order to support the Cuban people, announced his U.S. visa had been formally withdrawn. “Without the input of the Cuban Medical Brigade,” foreign minister Andall told the Herald, “there is no question that our health system will collapse.” https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article311716616.html

Salvadoran convicted of planting bomb in Cuban hotel in 1997 released from jail: AP Havana Bureau Chief Andrea Rodríguez reports that a Salvadoran man convicted of placing a bomb at a Cuban hotel in 1997 has been released from jail after fulfilling his sentence. The release of Otto René Rodríguez Llerena, who confessed to being recruited, trained, armed, and paid by Cuban-American terrorists Luis Posada Carriles and Orlando Bosch to place explosives in Havana’s Meliá Cohiba hotel, comes after last December’s release from Cuban jails of another Salvadoran hitman, Ernesto Cruz Leon, whose bombs killed an Italian tourist at another hotel. In an official statement, Cuba’s foreign ministry said, “The Cuban government reiterates its commitment to the fight against terrorism, the respect for human rights, and the need for the international community to hold those who promote these acts accountable.” In January, the Trump administration revoked the Biden administration’s decision to rescind the U.S. designation of Cuba as a state sponsor of terrorism, and more recently Cuba submitted to the UN its own list of Cuban-born “terrorists” it alleges are organizing and financing violent attacks against Cuba from U.S. soil. https://apnews.com/article/cuba-ataques-terroristas-bombas-hoteles-7a41eb6c1d4157d062dc298e9d664efb?utm_source=twitter&utm_medium=share

Sanctions adrift: U.S.-Cuba policy stuck in strategic stagnation: Citing a recent report by the London-based think-tank Chatham House on the effectiveness of sanctions as a U.S. foreign policy tool, the Cuba Study Group writes in its monthly newsletter that “U.S. sanctions policy on Cuba bears virtually none of the hallmarks of an effective sanctions program.” The organization argues that U.S. sanctions toward Cuba “lack clear, achievable objectives beyond vague aspirations for a democratic transition; operate unilaterally without meaningful allied coordination; have never undergone systematic assessment of their effectiveness; remain divorced from any broader diplomatic strategy or credible alternatives; and have become emblematic of the very hypocrisy and double standards that fuel the ‘axis of the sanctioned’ narrative.” Cuba Study Group argues that “after six decades of negligible returns, the embargo stands as a testament to the risks the report warns against,” saying that “without fundamental recalibration along the lines suggested by the Chatham House report, hardline U.S.-Cuba policy appears destined to perpetuate this cycle of ineffectiveness—punishing ordinary Cubans while leaving the regime’s grip on power not only intact, but arguably strengthened by the very isolation it was meant to impose.” https://preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webview/1476379/161917138480661640

American Airlines must face suit over confiscated Cuban airport: Courthouse News Service reports that a Cuban-American man in Florida can move forward in a lawsuit against American Airlines for trafficking in property where Cuba’s busiest airport, Havana’s Jose Martí International, is located, for which he holds a certified claim by the U.S. government. A three-judge panel overturned a Florida federal judge’s dismissal of the suit given the plaintiff, Jose Lopez Regueiro, was not a U.S. citizen when the land was confiscated in 1959 nor when he acquired an interest in the airport, having only become a U.S. citizen in 2015 and filing suit in 2021. This case, made possible by the first Trump administration’s controversial decision to activate Title III of the 1996 Helms-Burton (LIBERTAD) Act, potentially sets a legal precedent allowing certified claimants to pursue suits in U.S. courts against U.S., Cuban or third-country firms allegedly “trafficking” in property nationalized following the Cuban revolution even if they or their families were not U.S. citizens at the time of expropriation. Lopez Regueiro’s attorney Andres Rivero said in a statement that, “We will continue to pursue traffickers like American Airlines and Expedia to stop and punish their shameful support for the repressive communist regime in Cuba.” Meanwhile, American Airlines, which dominates the U.S. commercial aviation market to Cuba, has sought Department of Transportation permission to reduce its Cuba flights from Miami for the 2025-26 winter season, citing “ongoing U.S.-Cuba market conditions.” If approved, American would cut in half its daily flights to Havana, drastically reduce the frequency of flights to Camaguey, Holguín and Varadero, and eliminate all flights to Santiago de Cuba. https://www.courthousenews.com/american-airlines-must-face-suit-over-confiscated-cuban-airport/

Radio/TV Martí dodges DOGE: In an op-ed in the Miami Herald, Alvaro Alba, Deputy Director of the federally-funded Office of Cuba Broadcasting (OCB), which operates Radio and Television Martí, celebrates how the broadcaster founded 40 years ago to beam propaganda to the island has survived the DOGE axe led by Elon Musk earlier this year. “None of this would have been possible without the consistent support of Cuban American elected officials who have fiercely defended OCB’s mission,” Alba writes, likely referring to the Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee responsible for overseeing OCB’s budget, Cuban-American Rep. Mario Díaz-Balart (R-FL). In the op-ed, Alba, a Miami-based Cuban American, claims that taxpayer-funded Radio Martí and the website Martí Noticias are consumed by millions of Cubans in Cuba, but in reality, the broadcaster has a small audience on the island, and has long been considered a pork barrel project benefiting Miami politicians and right-wing ideologues like Alba, who received a salary of $183,702 last year, according to OpenGovPay. https://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/op-ed/article311424245.html

U.S. deportations to Cuba continue in late July: Havana-based independent media outlet OnCuba reports that repatriation flights to Cuba from the U.S. continued in late July, with 118 irregular migrants, including 96 men and 22 women, returned to Havana on July 31. The flight marks the seventh U.S.-origin deportation flight to Cuba during the Trump administration, and the twenty-seventh from different countries in the region so far in 2025, totaling 833 individuals, according to Cuban authorities. Recent data obtained from ICE by the Deportation Data Project show that 731 Cuban nationals have also been deported to third-countries (other than Cuba) so far in 2025, mostly to Mexico (719), the majority of whom (632) faced no other criminal charges other than purportedly violating immigration laws. https://oncubanews.com/cuba-ee-uu/cuba-recibe-el-septimo-vuelo-de-migrantes-deportados-desde-eeuu-bajo-la-administracion-trump/

United pauses Cuba routes amid demand uncertainty, policy shift: United Airlines has notified the Department of Transportation that it intends to halt its Cuba routes for the 2025-26 winter season, starting September, given seasonal fluctuations and fresh restrictions on travel to and from the island. By suspending its sole nonstop service from Houston, after having scrapped its regular flights from Newark in 2023, the airline has effectively exited the Cuban market. The only U.S. carrier serving Cuba from airports outside of Florida, United’s departure leaves American, Southwest and Delta as the only other U.S. carriers still flying commercially to Cuba, from just two airports: Tampa and Miami. The move comes as Cuba has reported a 25% drop in tourism during the first six months of 2025, including a sharp reduction in Cuban-American travelers over fears of re-entry to the U.S. following travel to the island. https://aviationweek.com/air-transport/airlines-lessors/united-pauses-cuba-route-amid-demand-uncertainty-policy-shift