Miami Herald: U.S.: Charter companies shouldn’t pay for Cuba legal judgment
By CURT ANDERSON
Declaring U.S.-to-Cuba charter flights a vital national interest, the Justice Department is opposing a Cuban-American woman’s attempt to make air charter companies pay a $27 million judgment she won against Cuba’s communist government.
The woman, Ana Margarita Martinez, was awarded the money in 2001 after claiming in a lawsuit that she was tricked into marrying a Cuban spy so he could infiltrate Miami’s large exile community. In an attempt to satisfy the judgment, her lawyers sought earlier this year to collect fees that eight air charter companies pay to Cuban tour companies for permission to land there.
The charter companies asked a federal judge to intervene, and late Wednesday the Justice Department filed papers siding with the companies. Chief U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno, who has not yet issued a final decision, had asked for the U.S. position.
