Cuba connections straining Miami port tunnel
The French-based parent company of the preferred builder for the Miami port tunnel project is facing opposition from parts of Miami's Cuban community because the parent company has developed a string of resort hotels in Cuba.
Bouygues Travaux Publics has been designated as the preferred builder of the $1 billion tunnel project, which would provide direct access between the port and Miami's primary highways, ending the need to have container drayage trucks negotiate the stop lights and downtown traffic just outside the current port entrance.
But a Miami attorney representing members of a family whose property in Cuba was expropriated by the Castro regime in the early 1960s, said giving a contract to Bouygues Travaux Publics could be a violation of the Helms-Burton Act. That law gave U.S. nationals the right to seek damages against foreign companies 'trafficking' in properties expropriated by the Cuban government.
The descendants of the Sanchez-Hill family, many who now live in South Florida, say the French company has developed hotels on what had been the family's land.
Their legal challenge, along with some previously existing opposition to the port tunnel, has led to speculation the project could be doomed.
But Miami-Dade County officials say the subsidiary favored to win the tunnel project did not participate directly in the Cuba developments. In addition, county officials are citing a 2000 U.S. Supreme Court case that stops local governments from trying to influence foreign policy. The case was based on the actions of a Massachusetts city that banned relations with any company doing business with Myanmar.
County commissioners who are part of the local Cuban community say it appears the county will need to go with the low bidder for the project to avoid what would be a likely legal defeat.
'I don’t feel comfortable' with Bouygues' Cuba connection, Commissioner Jos' 'Pepe' Diaz told the Miami Herald. 'But I don't think it’s within our purview to do something with it.'
Diaz, whose West Miami district includes many of the warehouses and businesses whose success is linked to the port, added, 'We have to make sure that tunnel gets built.'