Miami man who says he's rightful owner of Havana's airport sues American Airlines [View all]

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Miami Herald


BY NORA GÁMEZ TORRES
SEPTEMBER 25, 2019 06:44 PM

In an anticipated legal case, American Airlines on Wednesday became the first air carrier to be sued for conducting business on properties confiscated by the government in Cuba, despite having obtained authorization from the Barack Obama government to fly to the island.

The federal lawsuit, which also includes Chile’s LATAM Airlines, was filed in Miami on Wednesday by José Ramón López Regueiro. He is the son of José López Vilaboy, a businessman close to Cuban dictator Fulgencio Batista who was the owner in 1959 of what is now Havana’s José Martí International Airport before it was confiscated by the revolutionary government led by Fidel Castro.

According to the lawsuit, filed by the Rivero Mestre law firm, López Vilaboy bought the land of the Rancho Boyeros airport from its previous owner, Pan American Airways, in 1952 for $1.5 million in cash. The Cuban businessman then modernized the runway and built the airport terminal that he renamed José Martí.

. . .

A Florida court declared López Regueiro his father’s legitimate and only heir. In addition to the airport, López Vilaboy was a shareholder of the airline company Cubana de Aviación, and owned a newspaper and a hotel, among other properties. All were confiscated by the Castro government, which accused him of having exploited his relationship with Batista to obtain loans from the government and sometimes act as the “frontman” of the Cuban leader.

López Vilaboy denied the accusations in a memoir.


Read more: https://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article235480742.html

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From left on the right, Alfredo Hernández, consul of Cuba in
New York, José López Vilaboy, president of Cubana and
James J O´Brien, representative of the mayor of New York,
on May 15, 1956



The lawyers of the law firm Rivero Mestre, Nick Gutiérrez (i), Manuel Vázquez (2i), and Andrés Rivero (2d), and José Ramón López Regueiro (d), sole heir of businessman José López Vilaboy, who also owned Cuban Aviation, during a press conference held Wednesday at the office headquarters in Coral Gables, near Miami, Florida. EFE / Giorgio Viera