Yes, I've been doing a fair amount of GDR-posting recently. But I read this section of Stasi State or Socialist Paradise and it chilled me. I think what is described here is exactly what the US will do to Cuba if the government gives up and figures the embargo isn't worth fighting anymore:

After unification, hundreds of thousands of East Germans suddenly found that the security they enjoyed in the homes they had bought or rented was suddenly threatened. When the unification treaty was being negotiated, the West German government had insisted on the principle of 'restitution before compensation' for properties in the East that once belonged to those who had lived since in West Germany. As a consequence any post-war property transactions that had taken place within the territory of East Germany were deemed questionable. This gave previous owners, who had left immediately after the war or during the early years of the GDR, the right to reclaim these properties with no obligation to pay any compensation whatsoever. This meant that those who had bought these homes and improved them over a period of 40 years, were suddenly threatened with eviction. The former owners, who had already received compensation in the West for their loss of property, were now given the right to reclaim them as well. Of course, in the meantime, the value of these properties had increased massively, especially in and around Berlin where the increase was up to a hundredfold. This fact alone attracted huge numbers of claimants.

In fact, 2.2 million requests were lodged for legal repossession of houses and blocks of flats. Because several people usually live in a single home, it meant that about half the GDR population was affected by such claims. Demands were made not just with respect to single homes and blocks of flats, but whole streets and even villages. Overnight, many GDR families found themselves evicted from homes they had bought or leased and had considered their own; a number even committed suicide as a result. Others, at considerable cost, were forced to fight through the courts in an attempt to keep their homes. Many, who had rented their flats from the local authority over many years suddenly found themselves with a private landlord who invariably tried to have them evicted so that they could bring in new tenants and increase the rent.

Yet of all the claimants, only three per cent were in fact former owners, the others were merely relative of former owners, often with conflicting interests, sometimes relatives who had never even lived in Germany and did not speak the language. But they all suddenly found themselves with an unexpected windfall, an opportunity to own property. What followed was a period of fear and grinding uncertainty for the current owners and long drawn-out battles with relatives of the previous owners, the administrative authorities, and the courts. These battles took years and during that time the current owners were in limbo, not allowed to undertake repairs, obtain loans or sell the properties. In the end, after often strenuous and expensive legal battles which often dragged on for years, 60 per cent of the claims were rejected. That in itself demonstrates the greed of those who were out to make a fortune on the backs of the East Germans. By 2007, almost half a million properties were handed back to (relatives of) former owners and the current owners were forced out.

It would have been much better if previous owners had been given compensation, as happened after the war, as that would have precluded claims on the actual properties as well. That would have provided for peace and stability. But keeping half of the GDR population in continuous fear over the possible loss of their homes was, it seems, a more attractive alternative. People who live in fear do not protest or challenge what else is happening around them.

Evidence that the decision to permit restitution before compensation was a political one and not based in the basic principles of property ownership is the fact that any claims of restitution by East Germans for properties they lost in the West through the partition of Germany were rejected on the grounds that the time limits for bringing such claims had passed.

It's important to note that all this is on top of the policy that allowed the former feudal landowners (the Junkers) to purchase their ancestral lands in the East for 40 cents on the dollar.

If Cuba falls, there will be a flood of gusanos with a great-uncle who owned land in Cuba all claiming they need to be given property "owed" to them. And the US will insist on it as terms of ending the embargo. There will be millions of Cubans turned out of their homes by these evil worms who will insist these properties are rightfully theirs, and the Cubans will have no way to fight back. And of course, just as devastating will be all the US corporations like Chiquita who will put claims in to steal all the lands they stole in the first place, and the US government will give it to them. I have absolutely no doubt of this.

And remember, the capitalist powers humiliated the people of the Eastern Bloc far worse than they ever treated the Nazis. Because of this, I fully expect we'd see things like HGTV starting a show called "Coming Home" or something like that, that features gusanos fixing up their newly stolen homes and lands. Of course, they'll make it seem like the gusano thieves are actually doing a good thing and improving existing buildings, they'll never mention the people thrown out or now paying much higher rents. They'll probably go to great lengths to show Cubans working on the building and being paid to say comments like "we love our situation now, this is much better!" And every episode will feature one weepy, sentimental segment where they talk about how kind their great uncle was and how mean Castro was to him, leaving out how he was a murderer for the Batista regime or was a rich asshole who exploited the people of Cuba. I'm not trying to lathe of heaven this into existence, it's just what will happen. It's like looking into Galadriel's Mirror.

And this is why we have to do everything we can to prevent this future.