Despite embargo, Cubans get inheritances

[Judi Lynn]

Despite embargo, Cubans get inheritances
U.S. and Cuban lawyers are working closely with families to ensure islanders receive inheritances from their relatives in America.
Posted on Tue, Oct. 16, 2007

BY WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
El Nuevo Herald


ROBERTO KOLTUN/EL NUEVO HERALD STAFF
Attorneys Carlos Enriquez, left, Sergio Mendez,
Jose I. Valdes, Luis E. Barreto and Enrique
Zamora are on a rotating list of local lawyers
who receive a special license to travel to Cuba
to represent the rights of Cubans claiming
inheritances in the United States.


Since 2003, Cuba and the United States have worked closely to settle lawsuits and cases of inheritance involving more than $50 million and hundreds of Cuban families on both sides of the Florida Straits.

The transfer of inheritance money to Cubans on the island is generating an inevitable interaction among lawyers and legal aides in Miami with their counterparts at Bufete Internacional de la Habana, the International Law Bureau of Havana, and other government agencies.

Pragmatism has triumphed over political impediments. And the Cuban heirs on the island can now receive -- in periodic remittances made through Western Union -- their money, which until now had been frozen in the United States.

''We're in the presence of a peculiarity in U.S.-Cuba relations, because both parties are very interested in settling the litigation ahead,'' said Cuban-American lawyer Enrique Zamora, who travels to Cuba every six weeks, representing about 20 cases. ``These are strictly familial -- not political -- affairs.''

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http://www.miamiherald.com/548/story/272946.html