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Another
unnecessary, messy imperialistic screw up. Probably came from Rove’s defending
the Cuban American vote in Florida. Will John
Bolton be pounding a shoe at the UN soon? kwc U.S. to Mexico Re Cuba: "Screw Your Laws" by jpol, Boomantribune, Tue Feb 7th,
2006 at 09:00:57 PM EST A rather extraordinary event has taken place this week in Mexico City
where Cuban officials and U.S. energy executives were meeting at the Hotel
Maria Isabel Sheraton, owned by Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. The
meetings were disrupted and had to be moved to a Mexican-owned hotel this past
Saturday when the Hotel Maria Isabel abrubtly evicted all 16 members
of an official Cuban trade delegation after one night, withholding the balance
of their three day deposit in the process. It was reported that the
Cubans suddenly found themselves out on the street, surrounded by their bags.
The episode is rapidly escalating into a major international incident. One might imagine that some sort of inappropriate conduct by
the Cubans had led to this extraordinary turn of events, but no such conduct
has been alleged or even suggested. Rather, according to Kirby Jones, president of the US-Cuba Trade
Association, the U.S. government pressured the hotel owner to expel the Cubans,
claiming that the company was in violation of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act. Starwood officials confirmed that the U.S. Treasury Department had requested
the expulsion, and a spokeswoman for the US embassy in Mexico was quoted as saying 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." It is not surprising that the Bush administration, never one
to be bothered by the laws of other nations, would attempt to exert pressure on
U.S. companies doing business in other countries when it suits their agenda.
Unfortunately for Sheraton and the Bush administration, the expulsion of the
Cuban officials appears to violate Mexico's local and national laws prohibiting
discrimination. Mexico secretary of foreign affairs Luis Ernesto Derbez, observed that the Helms-Burton law "does not exist" in
Mexico, "and should not be applied, in our nation," Echoeing similar sentiments, he says the idea that a United States
law is being enforced on Mexican soil is troubling. "There does not exist
and neither should there exist the extraterritorial application of this law in
our nation," he said. Mexican authorities are investigating and exploring
sanctions against the hotel ranging from fines to closure. The Cubans have also been notified that
they can file for damages in Mexican courts if adequate grounds can be
demonstrated.
Mexico City Mayor Alejandro Encinas has independently threatened to have the hotel shut down if local prosecutors
determine that local anti-discrimination laws were broken. Adding to the
questionable legality of the U.S. government demand and Starwood's compliance,
the Mexican Congress, in 1996, enacted a law forbidding companies here to comply with
the U.S. embargo of Cuba. Cuba
is also outraged.
An editorial in the state-run newspaper, Granma,
equated the expulsion with "petty meanness" and represented "an
outrage" against Mexican sovereignty. "The tentacles of the blockade
and the United States' criminal economic war against Cuba tend to extend
themselves to every corner of the planet, including to the detriment of the
sovereignty and laws of other states," the editorial said. There seems to be no dispute of the involvement of the U.S.
government in this embarrassing and almost certainly illegal incident. The New
York Times reports that "On Friday, the United States
Treasury Department contacted the company that owns the Sheraton and warned
them that they were violating federal laws against trading with Cuba by
allowing the meeting to take place in their hotel." According to the
Times, "The hotel told the Cuban representatives to leave, and sent their
room deposits to the Treasury Department." While the Bush administration's coziness with, and largesse
towards, the U.S. energy industry is well documented, the coziness evidently
chills when it comes to dealing with Castro's Cuba, which is trying to entice American oil companies to join Chinese, Canadian, Indian and
Norwegian companies into oil exploration deals in Cuban waters. The Cubans were
urging the U.S. companies to lobby against the U.S. embargo of Cuba so they
could invest in the Cuban energy sector. Substantial oil
reserves
were discovered in
Cuban waters 2 years ago,
and Cuba has announced plans to double drilling capacity and exploration for oil
in Cuban waters.
The U.S. embargo currently prohibits American companies from competing for the
lucrative contracts. The meetings in Mexico City were attended by Texas
executives representing Exxon
Mobil and Valero Energy Corporation. the Louisiana
Department of Economic Development was also represented, as were Texas port authorities. The
fact that these events occured at a conference dealing with oil hardly seems a
coincidence.
U.S.-Cuba Trade Association President Jones maintains that he has arranged nine other meetings
attended by Cuban officials in Mexico on different topics, including several
held at a Westin Hotel in Cancun, also owned by Starwood, with no U.S.
interference. "It is absolutely extraordinary," says Jones,
"that...the U.S. government on a Friday night should engage in efforts to
kick 16 Cubans out of a hotel in Mexico, sitting and meeting with U.S.
businessmen." Jones mocked the broad interpretation of the law, arguing
that "if you take this to its logical extreme, no Cuban can stay at any
American hotel in the world and no Cuban can buy a McDonald´s hamburger
anywhere." He noted that, with the United States increasingly seeking
energy sources close to home, it is ridiculous that U.S. oil companies be forbidden from
competing with the Chinese, Europeans, Canadians and others in the sea off Cuba. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates there could be 5 billion barrels of oil in the
area plus large quantities of natural gas. With President Bush advocating, in his State of the Union
address, less dependence on Middle East oil, and with Venezuela, angered by alleged spying by
U.S. diplomats,
threatening to close U.S. oil refineries owned by
Citgo, the U.S. unit of Venezuela's state oil company, one has to wonder about
the Bush administration's provocative hostility toward the possibility of the
opening of new oil markets 90 miles off U.S. shores. http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2006/2/7/21057/18422 |
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