Mexico City Moves To Close Hotel That Expelled Cubans

Mexico City Moves To Close Hotel That Expelled Cubans
NYT

Friday February 10, 2:12 PM EST

NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- Mexico City officials moved to close a U.S.-owned
hotel that last week expelled Cuban officials who were meeting with U.S.
oil executives, the New York Times reported Friday.

Mexico City official Virginia Jaramillo Flores said inspectors had found
that the Hotel Maria Isabel Sheraton lacked liquor licenses for its
bars, didn't have enough parking spaces and had more floor space than
its occupancy license allows, the newspaper reported.

Mexico Foreign Relations Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez said federal
officials would impose fines against the hotel and Mexico City officials
would look into closing it down for code violations, the Associated
Press had reported.

Meanwhile, Cuba on Friday criticized the U.S. for exerting its "arrogant
imperial power" in pressuring the hotel to expel Cubans, AP said.

"We feel terribly bad for all that has happened, which has shown just
how far the United States will go to assume the right to ignore the
Mexican government and people," said an official note taking up most of
the front page of the Communist Party daily Granma.

The U.S. has maintained a trade and financial embargo against Cuba for
45 years, and has no diplomatic relations with the island nation. U.S.
sanctions were strengthened in 1996 with the Helms-Burton law, which
sought to pressure other nations not to do business with Cuba, AP said.

Mexico officials at the time criticized aspects of the U.S. law it
considered to be "extraterritorial" and passed its own law forbidding
companies operating here to participate in U.S. sanctions, AP reported.

Following the recent flap, Mexico issued a complaint Tuesday against the
hotel for expelling the Cuban delegation, saying the move violated
investment and trade protection laws.

The meeting in Mexico City, organized by a U.S.-Cuba trade organization
to allow U.S. energy executives and Cuban officials discuss possible
investment opportunities, was moved to a Mexican-owned hotel.

"The Bush government, as if it were an owner of the world, has
demonstrated it knows no limit in its arrogant imperial power," the
Cuban editorial said.

The Cuban article also criticized Derbez's response.

While Derbez's office filed the formal complaint against the hotel and
the secretary himself said it should be hit with the maximum fine, he
rejected calls to issue a diplomatic protest to the U.S. government, AP
reported.
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
02-10-06 1412ET

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