---
kind: "section"
citation: "22 U.S.C. § 6081"
title: "22"
title_heading: "Foreign Relations and Intercourse"
number: "6081"
heading: "Findings"
release: "119-102"
date: "2026-07-12"
url: "https://uscodex.org/usc/22/6081"
units:
  - "Chapter 69A — Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (libertad)"
  - "Subchapter III — Protection of Property Rights of United States Nationals"
---

# §6081. Findings


The Congress makes the following findings:

- (1) Individuals enjoy a fundamental right to own and enjoy [property](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A) which is enshrined in the United States Constitution.
- (2) The wrongful confiscation or taking of [property](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A) belonging to [United States nationals](/usc/22/6023.md?p=15) by the [Cuban Government](/usc/22/6023.md?p=5-A), and the subsequent exploitation of this [property](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A) at the expense of the rightful owner, undermines the comity of nations, the free flow of commerce, and economic development.
- (3) Since Fidel Castro seized power in Cuba in 1959—
  - (A) he has trampled on the fundamental rights of the Cuban people; and
  - (B) through his personal despotism, he has [confiscated](/usc/22/6023.md?p=4) the [property](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A) of—
    - (i) millions of his own citizens;
    - (ii) thousands of [United States nationals](/usc/22/6023.md?p=15); and
    - (iii) thousands more Cubans who claimed asylum in the United States as refugees because of persecution and later became naturalized citizens of the United States.
- (4) It is in the interest of the Cuban people that the [Cuban Government](/usc/22/6023.md?p=5-A) respect equally the [property](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A) rights of Cuban nationals and nationals of other countries.
- (5) The [Cuban Government](/usc/22/6023.md?p=5-A) is offering foreign investors the opportunity to purchase an equity interest in, manage, or enter into joint ventures using [property](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A) and assets some of which were [confiscated](/usc/22/6023.md?p=4) from [United States nationals](/usc/22/6023.md?p=15).
- (6) This “trafficking” in [confiscated](/usc/22/6023.md?p=4) [property](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A) provides badly needed financial benefit, including hard currency, oil, and productive investment and expertise, to the current [Cuban Government](/usc/22/6023.md?p=5-A) and thus undermines the foreign policy of the United States—
  - (A) to bring democratic institutions to Cuba through the pressure of a general economic embargo at a time when the Castro regime has proven to be vulnerable to international economic pressure; and
  - (B) to protect the claims of [United States nationals](/usc/22/6023.md?p=15) who had [property](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A) wrongfully [confiscated](/usc/22/6023.md?p=4) by the [Cuban Government](/usc/22/6023.md?p=5-A).
- (7) The United States Department of State has notified other governments that the transfer to third parties of [properties](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A) [confiscated](/usc/22/6023.md?p=4) by the [Cuban Government](/usc/22/6023.md?p=5-A) “would complicate any attempt to return them to their original owners”.
- (8) The international judicial system, as currently structured, lacks fully effective remedies for the wrongful confiscation of [property](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A) and for unjust enrichment from the use of wrongfully [confiscated](/usc/22/6023.md?p=4) [property](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A) by governments and private entities at the expense of the rightful owners of the [property](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A).
- (9) International law recognizes that a nation has the ability to provide for rules of law with respect to conduct outside its territory that has or is intended to have substantial effect within its territory.
- (10) The United States Government has an obligation to its citizens to provide protection against wrongful confiscations by foreign nations and their citizens, including the provision of private remedies.
- (11) To deter trafficking in wrongfully [confiscated](/usc/22/6023.md?p=4) [property](/usc/22/6023.md?p=12-A), [United States nationals](/usc/22/6023.md?p=15) who were the victims of these confiscations should be endowed with a judicial remedy in the courts of the United States that would deny traffickers any profits from economically exploiting Castro’s wrongful seizures.

## Source credit

(Pub. L. 104–114, title III, § 301, Mar. 12, 1996, 110 Stat. 814.)