As tensions between the US government and Cuba’s leadership continue to escalate in tandem with continued talk of back-channel discussions between the two, we are receiving a confusing picture of the actual state of those relations. There is also even more confusion over possible developments in the near future, in what we can describe as the ongoing “war” being waged on Cuba by the Trump administration — a war in which a new front has recently been opened with two legal decisions taken in late May.

On May 20, coinciding with the anniversary of Cuba’s questionable independence in 1902, US federal prosecutors acted to unseal an April 23 indictment against Cuba’s former leader, Raúl Castro, following a Miami judge’s decision to allow them to do so. A day later, the US Supreme Court voted 8 to 1 to reaffirm a previous ruling against four major cruise lines whose ships have made stops in Cuba.

The ruling endorsed a $440 million claim by Havana Docks, a US company. Having built the docks back in 1905 with a ninety-nine-year lease that gave them the right to operate the port until it expired, the company had its property confiscated by the Cuban government in 1960.