ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Tuesday, August 27, 1996 TAG: 9608270063
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: HAVANA
SOURCE: ANITA SNOW STAFF WRITER
The Cuban Telephone Co. office towers over downtown, a monument to the past when American corporations reigned over this island nation's economy.
A tarnished plaque on the nine-story stone building proclaims: ``On the 6th of August of 1960, the revolutionary government ... passed Resolution No. 1, nationalizing the telephone monopoly.''
In nearby Mariel, guards shoo away a photographer outside the cement plant built by Lone Star Industries of Stamford, Conn., now controlled by the communist government.
``Homeland or death!'' reads a message painted on the towering beige complex topped with smokestacks.
These and thousands of other American-owned properties nationalized 36 years ago - including more than 100 being used by foreign firms in partnerships with Cuba - long were ignored in the political battle between Cuba and the United States.
A new U.S. law has changed that.
After Cuba shot down two civilian U.S. planes off the island's coast in February, President Clinton signed into law the Helms-Burton Act.
The law would let Americans whose property was confiscated in Cuba sue foreign businesses who now use those properties. It also would deny those foreign firms' executives - and those executives' families - entry into the United States.
But many of the U.S. companies that claim property in Cuba say the law is political, designed more to mollify Cuban-Americans in an election year than to help American corporations get paid.
``Claimants like Lone Star are getting overlooked,'' said David Wallace, the Lone Star chairman who heads a committee of about 40 of the largest firms with claims against Cuba.
They object to a provision of the law that - as of next year - will let Cuban-born, naturalized U.S. citizens sue foreign companies that benefit from properties that were theirs when they were in Cuba.
``We believe that the recognition of a second tier of claimants will delay and complicate the settlement of certified claims,'' Wallace wrote to lawmakers before the act was passed.
Important U.S. trading partners, including Japan, Canada and several European countries, have threatened to retaliate if their companies are sued under Helms-Burton. Trying to ward off the backlash until after November's presidential election, Clinton delayed the lawsuits until Feb. 1.
Cuba nationalized all American-held properties in 1960, one year after Fidel Castro seized power and Batista, the dictator, fled the country.
Other foreign companies were nationalized later. Cuba has since signed compensation agreements with Switzerland, France, Great Britain, Italy and Mexico and is completing similar accords with Spain.
But despite 5,911 claims filed by U.S. companies totaling $1.8 billion, there is no agreement with the United States.
More than 100 expropriated properties are now being used by foreign firms in partnerships with Cuba, U.S. officials estimate.
LENGTH: Medium: 65 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. 1. This nationalized cement factory (above) shown onby CNBJuly 31, 1996, in Mariel, Cuba, was once owned by Lone Star
Industries of Connecticut. 2. It, as well as the Cuban Telephone
Company (left), were among the thousands of U.S. properties
nationalized in 1960. color.