Why Castro's demand for reparations from US could backfire

[Zorro]

Cuban President Raúl Castro had a surprise for the Obama administration when he issued a new and considerably tougher set of demands this week for reaching normalized relations with the United States.

Return of the Guantánamo Bay naval base to Cuban sovereignty was perhaps the most stop-and-take-notice condition Mr. Castro set in a speech Wednesday. But it was the brother of Fidel Castro’s demand concerning reparations that could end up stirring the bitterest pot and posing the highest obstacle to normalization.

Castro said United States payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in economic reparations for damages caused by the five-decade-old embargo, and indeed a lifting of the embargo Cuba considers a “blockade,” would also have to take place before the two adversaries can renew relations that were severed soon after the Cuban revolution of 1959.

But Castro’s reparation demands also carry a risk. That’s because they virtually guarantee reawakening the sensitive issue of the estimated billions of dollars in reparations that US citizens, American businesses, and Cuban-Americans claim are owed for properties and businesses seized from them in the revolution.

http://news.yahoo.com/why-castros-demand-reparations-us-could-backfire-212657114.html

[Mika]

1. Jurisdiction resides in Cuba.

Just like the Elian case.

Also, this "seizure" of abandoned properties w/o taxes being paid on said property for years is known as eminent domain. Used widely in US cities and counties - especially these days.
Its OK when the US does it - bad when Cuba does it.