US now has relations with Cuba, but some still want payback

The U.S. once again has an official embassy in Cuba, but that doesn’t mean all is forgiven. Not even close.

The American flag has flown for years over Guantánamo, but now with the official re-opening of the U.S. Embassy, it will fly in Havana, too.

So begins a long, difficult legal struggle, which has been brewing since 1959. CBS news correspondent Margaret Brennan spoke with Lois and Roy Schechter, who were hounded out of Cuba in 1961 when Fidel Castro’s soldiers took their 14,000 acre farm.

“If we have relations with Cuba I don’t think we should have them without reparations,” Lois said, recalling when her farm was taken away.

“The soldiers were there, he spoke to them and got in the car and drove away. That was the end of the farm,” she told Brennan. “They had taken it over, they had nationalized it.”

The Schechters were among the wealthy landowners who Fidel Castro felt has exploited the poor. The Schecters had been on the island for 16 years, Brennan reports. They lived in a 17-room home. It’s now a guarded diplomatic home for Chinese officials.

The Schecters also owned and operated a shirt factory, but it was also taken over by Castro’s regime.

The Schechters were able to smuggle out a few pieces of jewelry, but that was it. Now, they want compensation for the rest. They’re filing a claim for over $8 million dollars.

Of course, chasing out the wealthy landowners failed to make Cuba rich &#8212 but Cuba blames that on the U.S. embargo.

In fact, the Cuban government figures that because of the U.S. Embargo, the U.S. owes it $300 billion in damages for the embargo. Which means that if these claims are paid, any money the Schecters get would likely come from American taxpayers.