Washington: The US’ American Airlines and the Chilean-Brazilian Latam Airlines were sued in the United States, through Title III of the controversial Helms-Burton Law against Cuba, which seeks to deprive the Island of foreign investment, Radio Cadena Agramonte publishes.

According to the Law.com digital page, the claim against both companies was filed by Rivero Mestre, a law firm based in Coral Gables, Florida, which has already filed several such legal actions since the administration of Donald Trump activated Title III on May 2.

The plaintiff, the media said, is José Ramón López Regueiro, son of José López Vilaboy, whom the claim mentions as the former owner of the Rancho Boyeros airport, currently the José Martí international airport, which was nationalized after the triumph of the Revolution in the Island, on January 1, 1959.

The lawsuit states that “a large number of Cuban, American and international airlines have used and benefited from the airport for years, and continue to do so,” and adds that the Vilaboy family has not given their consent for such use, despite it is a nationalized property.

The document presented to the Court of the southern district of Florida adds that Regueiro files this action for damages as a result of what the claim calls "traffic."

An article published last May in the Cuban newspaper Granma describes Vilaboy - owner before 1959 of the aforementioned airport, the Cuban Aviation Company, the Colina hotel and other buildings - as one of the closest figure of the dictator Fulgencio Batista, overthrown by the Revolution.

That work recalled that the Ministry of Recovery of Misappropriated Assets, responsible at that time to process the nationalizations and interventions of badly-owned properties, opened 27 files to Vilaboy and his wife for illicit enrichment, as well as to other 15 people who appeared as their front men in companies and businesses.

The Helms-Burton, which codifies the economic, commercial and financial blockade imposed by Washington against Cuba almost 60 years ago, was approved by the US Congress and entered into force in 1996, but all administrations since then had suspended the application of Title III.

It was the Trump Executive, as part of his growing hostility towards the Caribbean country that decided to activate this year this section, which allows Americans to sue people and entities including third countries, to invest in Cuban territory in nationalized properties after the revolutionary triumph.

According to Law.com, due to the lack of precedents in the Helms-Burton proceedings, it is not clear how the lawsuit will go to court or what assets the plaintiff could charge to Latam, which is not a company based in U.S.

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