Clash looms on titles to properties in Cuba

The Miami Herald reports:

Lourdes Sampedro Pañeda remembers the grand marble entrance, the tiled interior courtyard with splashing fountain and the gracious staircase of her beloved childhood home in Vedado, an upscale section of Havana.

Sampedro Pañeda's sister, a nun, had an opportunity to see the old Havana homestead a few years ago. The marble had been stripped, not a tile was left in the courtyard, but the emotional draw remained -- even if the faded mansion now goes by a new name: the National Center for Sex Education, an institute run by Raúl Castro's daughter, Mariela.

''If a family was living in there, I would be reluctant, but belonging to the government? I want it back,'' Sampedro Pañeda said. ``Five girls and one boy -- we were all born in that house that was [built] by my grandfather. It should be in the family, not as much for the value as for sentimental reasons.''

As Cuban Americans dig up decades-old plans to file property claims, expecting a power shift in their homeland to lead to democracy once Fidel and Raúl Castro are gone, Sampedro Pañeda's family members may be better off than most. They have a thick sheaf of papers brought secretly out of Cuba that they say details their ownership of the property, before Fidel Castro. That's exactly the sort of proof that helped establish claims in Eastern European countries after communist regimes failed.

Eminent domain on a large scale.