The Supreme Court of the United States gave a new

target="_blank">endorsement on Tuesday to the enforcement of the Helms-Burton Law by allowing the oil company ExxonMobil to continue its lawsuit against the Cuban state corporation Cimex for properties confiscated after the Revolution, a decision that could facilitate future similar claims against entities of the Cuban regime.

According to the EFE agency, the U.S. highest judicial authority ruled, by six votes to three, that

Cuban state-owned companies cannot invoke the sovereign immunity provided by the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA) to block lawsuits filed under Title III of the Helms-Burton Law.p>

The decision clears one of the main procedural obstacles faced by those seeking to claim compensation

for properties nationalized by the Cuban regime since 1959.

The litigation was initiated by ExxonMobil, which is seeking compensation for the

1960 confiscation of a refinery and more than a hundred gas stations it operated in Cuba, for which it never received compensation.

According to EFE, the Supreme Court concluded that the Helms-Burton Law constitutes a specific legal

regime that overrides the sovereign immunity of Cuban state agencies and companies in such cases, meaning the oil company is not required to demonstrate that any of the exceptions provided in the general legislation on foreign sovereign immunity are met.

The ruling sets a relevant precedent for other pending claims related to expropriations

strong>carried out by Fidel Castro's regime more than six decades ago.

The ruling comes just weeks after another decision favorable to plaintiffs under the same legal framework

. In May, the Supreme Court allowed compensation claims from Havana Docks, the company that owns former docks in the Port of Havana, which were used between 2016 and 2019 by several U.S. and foreign cruise companies.

In that case, Royal Caribbean Cruises, Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Carnival Corporation, and MSC

Cruises were sued for operating in port facilities confiscated by the Cuban state.

Title III of the Helms-Burton Law, the application of which was activated in 2019 by the administration

of Donald Trump after being suspended for more than twenty years, allows U.S. citizens and companies—including Cubans who later acquired that citizenship—to file lawsuits against those who benefit from properties confiscated by the Cuban regime without compensation.

The Supreme Court's decision also arrives at a time when Havana has begun to send signals about its

willingness to address one of the most sensitive issues in bilateral relations with Washington: compensations for properties nationalized after the Revolution.

Recently, the

target="_blank">Cuban Deputy Minister of Foreign Trade and Foreign Investment stated in an interview that the regime is willing to discuss the nationalization process "on the basis of respect." "We have perhaps more complicated issues, such as the nationalization process, that we are also willing to discuss," the official declared.

He also stated that Havana would be willing to explore "acceptable" agreements for both the affected

foreign companies and for Cubans who later emigrated and acquired U.S. citizenship.

These statements gained particular relevance because the Helms-Burton Law itself ties the full normalization

of relations between Cuba and the United States to the resolution of claims arising from expropriations carried out by the regime. Although the official did not explain what mechanisms might be used for potential compensation, his words were interpreted as an unusual opening on a topic that has remained practically untouchable for Cuban authorities for decades.