Helms-Burton Act

The Helms-Burton Act, formally the 1996 Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act, codified the US embargo of Cuba into statute. On 23 June 2026 the US Supreme Court ruled 6-3 that the Act strips sovereign immunity from agencies and instrumentalities of the Cuban government, clearing US federal courts to hear trafficking suits against foreign firms that use confiscated property .

The Act's Title III gives Cuban-American families whose property was seized after the 1959 revolution a private right to sue anyone who traffics in it. Successive presidents waived Title III from 1996 until the waiver first lifted in 2019; the 2026 ruling removes the immunity defence that Cuban state entities and their foreign partners could still raise.

The decision names the Spanish hotel groups Melia and Iberostar as exposed, opening a litigation front distinct from the US Treasury's sanctions track and raising the cost of any residual footprint on expropriated Cuban land.