The company's Cuban assets were nationalized after Fidel Castro took power the next year, so it began to trade sugar from other Caribbean islands.

In February, the Treasury Department authorized the release of $96.7 million from Cuban assets frozen in the United States.

Placement in the ballet program can lead to respectable salaries, government subsidies, the opportunity to travel internationally and recognition as a Cuban cultural asset.

This "wall" between the United States and Cuba persists, only because the State Department listens to a number of large corporations who can't forgive Castro's confiscation of their Cuban assets.

The United States responded by freezing all Cuban assets on American soil, severing diplomatic ties, and tightening its embargo on Cuba, which is still in place as of 2013.

Under these restrictions, Cuban assets in the United States were frozen and the existing restrictions were consolidated in an embargo, known as el bloqueo, Spanish for blockade.

Under these restrictions, Cuban assets in the U.S. were frozen and the existing restrictions were consolidated.

Cuba has also denounced as "theft" the use of frozen Cuban assets to pay for lawsuits filed in the US against the Republic of Cuba.

Moreover, Americans' claims to Cuban assets, while potentially legitimate, are exceedingly difficult to verify.

The U.S. can retain leverage through carrots instead of sticks: setting a higher sugar import quota, offering economic aid or most-favored-nation trade status, negotiating frozen Cuban assets or waiving compensation for nationalized properties.