Behind the trade embargo lies a huge and nearly forgotten obstacle: the still-active property claims by American companies. Inside the effort to settle a 50-year-old debt.
I find it hard to believe that these claims would ever be honored in the wake of normalized relations between the US and Cuba. I feel for the private individuals whose homes were confiscated by Castro, and I also have sympathy for US businesses that were claimed, but less so. My guess is that if either of these two segments were to get reconciliation, its far more likely to be the Coca-Cola's and not the Jone's. Cuba is a place that I'd like to one day visit. From what I hear, its an amazing place.
That would mean that Cuba would need to be a strong economic force first, right? But I don't doubt it could occur, I suppose my point was that those people who owned property there are likely the last to see reparations.
Tides rise, borders change, powers rise and fall. It's the cost of doing business, the risk offset by the potential opportunity in a country that at the time was combatting a political uprising. Unfortunately they were on the wrong side of that coin and Cuba doesn't owe them shit.