Mexican (Gov't) standoff over (Starwood) hotel expulsions (of Cubans in MX

[UpInArms]

http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_detail.asp?pp_cat=17&art_id=11522&sid=6564923&con_type=1

The Mexican government has launched a broad investigation that could lead to fines against a US-owned hotel if officials conclude that it expelled Cuban guests because of their nationality or because of pressure from Washington.

A meeting between Cuban officials and US energy executives was moved to another Mexico City hotel Saturday after the Hotel Maria Isabel Sheraton asked the Cubans to leave.

<snip>

Kirby Jones, president of the US- Cuba Trade Association, said the US government pressured the hotel's owner, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, arguing that the US company was violating a law that strengthened Washington's trade sanctions first imposed against Cuba in 1961.

The 1996 Helms-Burton law "does not exist, and should not be applied, in our nation," Secretary of Foreign Affairs Luis Ernesto Derbez told a Mexico City radio station.

If officials determine that the hotel expelled the Cubans because of US government pressure, he added, Mexico might sanction the hotel.

...more...

[High Plains]

1. Good for Mexico.

Who does the US government think it is, telling a hotel in a foreign county who it can do business with? Ach, the arrogance...

[murray hill farm]

5. The Bush Administration, in total, is sooooooo stupid!

Even though the bully techniques are clearly no longer working in central and south america..they keep them up with the same jr high school techniques. Now, Venezuela is threatening to cut all oil from the usa and to sell their refineries here..and sell their oil elsewhere..and there is no question that the entire world is bidding for such oil...we get a good portion of our oil now from mexico..with the same trade agreement...oil is shipped to the usa from mexico, it is refined into gasoline in the usa..and the gasoline is sold back to mexico..it is the same with venezuela..the oil is there and the refineries are here...a fine deal for the usa, the closest oil countries have the oil and the refineries are in the usa. But oil is becoming more and more difficult to get in the usa..and it will just get more and more difficult to get..and our refineries here are old and neglected in maintenance...no country wants to start, at this end game of oil, to build their own refineries...and this is the main card that the usa plays in their bully techniques....but wait...as oil runs out, it becomes more and more and more and more valuable....and more and more countries that want that oil, are willing to become the new partner with Venezuela and with Mexico..and now even with cuba...to finance the new refineries in the oil countries..and to capture the same trade agreements that these countries had with the usa. But hey...head in the sand, bush admin....keeps up the old bully stuff..like it will still work..it wont.

[TomInTib]

2. Fuck Starwood. I am Platinum preferred (270 days last year) and

I am contacting them as soon as I type the period at the end of this sentence.

[demosincebirth]

3. The first act of a Dem President in '08 should be to end

the stupid sanctions against Cuba!!

[pinniped]

4. Hey, it was in PRINT the other day why they were expelled.

--if officials conclude that it expelled Cuban guests because of their nationality or because of pressure from Washington.--

[HuffleClaw]

6. "A spokeswoman for the US embassy in Mexico said earlier...

...that "US law prohibits US persons and entities from providing services to Cuban national persons or entities, and the Sheraton, as a subsidiary of a US company, is bound by US law."

ok, that is complete and utter bullshit. i think the real question here is, WHO strong armed the hotel?

[Mithras61]

7. Allowing that it is US law...

what is an entity supposed to do when US law and local law conflict? Hint: IANAL, but I would say that respecting local law would generally be a good idea, but as a corporation, I would have to evaluate it based on whose fines would be stiffer.

I'm not saying it was the right thing to do, but that I can see where a corporation would make the choice that was made.

I believe we would ALL be better off if we (the USA) would quit trying to dictate policy to the world and let other countries handle their own affairs, but I guess we just CAN'T do THAT, 'cause it wouldn't be a "free market" then, would it?

[SlipperySlope]

8. The penalty for providing services to a Cuban national...

The penalty for the subsidiary of a US company that provides services to a Cuban national can include forfeiture of the property to the US government.

Just FYI...