Warming Cuba ties spark Cuesta family’s hopes of recouping loss

In the 1950s, Tampa’s internationally renowned Cuesta cigar family wanted out of the tobacco industry.

They successfully sold most assets, including their Cuesta-Rey cigar brand to Tampa’s J.C. Newman Cigar Company, which still owns it today, and their factories in West Tampa and Jacksonville.

But they couldn’t find buyers for their Havana factory or their controlling stock in the El Rey del Mundo cigar company in Cuba.

Then the Cuban government took over that factory and stock through Fidel Castro’s efforts to nationalize all American-owned property for redistribution to the people of the island nation. The Cuestas received nothing in return.

 

Now, as the U.S. and Cuban governments work toward normalized relations, the Cuestas have hope they will be compensated for their loss, which has since been certified by the U.S. Foreign Claims Settlement Commission.

But the question the Cuestas and other certified claimants face is how to proceed in order to receive the fairest reparation. Read More>