US Supreme Court to Rule on Exxon's $1 Billion Cuba Assets Claim

By Tsvetana Paraskova - Feb 23, 2026

The U.S. Supreme Court will be hearing on Monday arguments by ExxonMobil, backed by the Trump Administration, about the scope of a law allowing American companies to claim damages for seized assets in Cuba.

U.S. supermajor Exxon is seeking compensation upwards of $1 billion for assets seized by the Cuban government in 1960. At the time of the confiscation of the assets, then belonging to subsidiaries owned by Standard Oil, they were worth $70 million. 

However, Exxon wants $1 billion in the current claim because interest has accrued and there is potential of enhanced damages. 

Legislation from 1996, the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act, also known as the Helms Burton Act, allows U.S. nationals to bring lawsuits in federal court against anyone who “traffics in property which was confiscated by the Cuban Government on or after January 1, 1959.” 

Three U.S. Presidents since 1996 -- Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama – suspended parts of the Helms-Burton Act to avoid diplomatic conflicts with allies like Canada and Spain whose companies have invested in Cuba. But President Trump lifted the suspension in 2019 during his first term in office.

Exxon sued three entities owned by the Cuban government in federal court in Washington, D.C., in 2019 under the Helms-Burton Act, contending that they violated the law by trafficking in confiscated property owned by Exxon. 

A U.S. district court ruled in 2021 that Cuban state-owned entities facing Helms-Burton Act lawsuits can invoke the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act, which generally bars lawsuits in U.S. courts against foreign governments and their “agenc[ies] and instrumentalit[ies].”  

Exxon then turned to the Supreme Court to rule on the scope of the Helms-Burton Act and whether it trumps the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act. 

A Supreme Court ruling in favor of Exxon could open the door to other claims for compensation over the expropriation of assets in Cuba after 1959.   

By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com

Cuban Americans keep sending help to the island, but some cry foul


By AFP
February 21, 2026


People line up with packages and items to send to Cuba at a Cubamax store in Florida - Copyright AFP GIORGIO VIERA

Gerard MARTINEZ

In the early morning, Florida resident Gisela Salgado headed to a local store with a bag stuffed with clothes, coffee and powdered milk to send to her brother in Cuba. She was not alone.

Even though some shipping agents in the Sunshine State have restricted the mailing of packages to the nearby crisis-wracked, Communist-ruled island due to logistical problems caused by fuel shortages there, customers keep showing up.

In the Miami area, the economic and energy emergency in Cuba has revived an old debate: should Cuban Americans keep sending remittances and basic goods to loved ones, or cut off shipments seen by some as keeping the government in Havana afloat?

After the ouster of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro, US President Donald Trump’s administration has forced Caracas to halt oil shipments to Cuba, and threatened tariffs on other countries who would step in to send crude, effectively creating a blockade.

At the main office of the Cubamax company in Hialeah, northwest of Miami, which handles remittances, shipping and travel, about 10 customers lined up before opening time.

Some were carrying bags or pushing carts filled with basic necessities, while others just had envelopes filled with cash.

In Hialeah, where nearly three out of four residents are of Cuban descent, there is no question that shipments are a must.

“Things there are terrible. People are starving, there’s nothing,” said Salgado, a 72-year-old who emigrated to the United States four decades ago.

“As long as my brother is there, I’ll keep sending him things. He has nothing to do with the government, and if I don’t send him anything, how will he eat?”

Standing near her, 81-year-old Jose Rosell is at Cubamax to send food and toiletries to his 55-year-old son, a taxi driver in Santiago de Cuba who lost his job due to the fuel shortage.

Rosell said he is worried that he won’t be able to keep helping him.



– Total blockade? –



Last week, Cubamax — one of the main agencies facilitating shipments and remittances to the Caribbean island nation of about 10 million people — suspended deliveries to residences and began enforcing a one package per customer limit, due to lack of fuel.

Some of those restrictions have since been lifted, but customers are still fearful that the pipeline to their relatives could soon be cut off entirely.

Other businesses such as Supermarket23, which sells packages of food and basic goods for delivery to Cuba, have said they will no longer accept new orders until further notice.

Shipments of basic necessities are possible due to an exemption to the US trade embargo on Cuba that allows for exchanges between family members.

But many in the Cuban diaspora have targeted businesses specializing in these transactions.

Three US lawmakers with Cuban roots — Mario Diaz-Balart, Carlos Gimenez and Maria Elvira Salazar — asked the Trump administration to revoke the licenses of US businesses they say are dealing with entities controlled by authorities in Havana.

Alex Otaola, a Cuban American influencer and activist, advocates cutting off all support to the island, even from family members, with his “Stoppage” campaign — an initiative that is hotly debated on social media.

For Emilio Morales, who leads the Havana Consulting Group, which specializes in the Cuban economy, cutting off shipments “won’t change the equation.”

The government in Havana has very little access to remittances, because they usually arrive via private travelers known as money “mules,” he told AFP.

And packages sent from abroad only help a small minority of Cubans, with little overall effect islandwide.

At a cafe in Hialeah, 59-year-old Reina Carvallo said critics need to make a clear distinction between the government and regular people like her two brothers, to whom she sends medication and other items.

“The regime should be beheaded, which is what it deserves,” Carvallo said. “But the people should not have to suffer.”