U.S.-Cuba ties symposium - Sat Feb 20, 2010 By LUISA YANEZ - This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The debate over the ongoing shift in U.S.-Cuba relations will be explored Saturday in a symposium on the legal implications of such a change.

The symposium will address the topics of trade and investment in Cuba in a free market economy, U.S. property claims in Cuba, Cuba under Raúl Castro and ongoing litigation involving these issues.

The event is free and open to the public.

The debate -- to be held from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. at the University of Miami Storer Auditorium -- will feature several panelists. They include:

• James Cason, former ambassador to Cuba and current member of the State Department. Cason was stationed in Cuba during the Elían Gonzalez saga more then a decade ago.

• Daniel Fisk, former special assistant to President George W. Bush and National Security Council senior director for Western Hemisphere affairs. He is currently the coordinator for governance at the International Republican Institute.

• George Harper, president of the Inter-American Bar Association.

• Andy Gomez, assistant provost at the University of Miami and a member of the Brookings Institution Cuba Initiative Task Force.

``We are expecting a robust, healthy debate about how a change in U.S.-Cuba relations could affect property, trade and investment in Cuba,'' said George Williamson, editor-in-chief of the University of Miami Inter-American Law Review, who will host the symposium.

Williamson said that his law review chose this topic for its annual symposium because of its particular impact, relevance and importance to the South Florida Community.

Other panelists include Jose Azel (Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies), Pedro Freyre (Akerman Senterfitt), Michael Gordon (professor emeritus at the University of Florida Levin College of Law), Yosbel Ibarra (Greenberg Traurig, LLP) and Nick Gutierrez (Gutierrez & Zarraluqui, LLP).

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