n less than two weeks, three separate developments have made the question of Cuba’s political and economic future much harder for Washington to keep on the back burner. On September 18, Cuba's national electrical grid collapsed again, leaving millions without power. The system has long suffered from aging equipment, but conditions have worsened as the United States has tightened restrictions on oil reaching the island. CBS News reported that only one tanker carrying fuel had reached Cuba since the latest restrictions took effect.
A day earlier, on September 17, Washington imposed another round of sanctions on Cuban entities and officials, including businesses supporting the country’s nickel industry and organizations tied to military research. Nickel mining will remain an important source of exports and hard currency for a new Cuban government.
Then on September 30 came an even more important change: the Treasury Department put new Cuba sanctions into effect and tightened parts of the older Cuban sanctions system. The new rules do more than increase financial pressure. They make clear what happens when a successful court judgment runs into blocked Cuban property. Under the new regulations, a claimant generally cannot use a judgment, or similar court process, to seize blocked property unless Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control gives permission.
That distinction will become enormously important in a Cuban transition. While a court may decide that a claimant is owed money, collecting it will depend on whether the asset is connected to a sanctions freeze. If it is, Treasury will likely decide whether the claimant can take the asset. In this scenario, the U.S. government would coordinate claims enforcement with economic reconstruction instead of allowing a race among creditors for whatever Cuban assets they can reach.
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