Energy meeting changes venues.(Brief Article)

0 Comments | Caribbean Update, March, 2006

ENERGY MEETING CHANGES VENUES. A meeting between Cuban officials and U.S. energy executives was moved to another hotel after the Sheraton Hotel in Mexico City, under pressure from the U.S. government, asked the Cubans to leave, the event's organizer said, reports AP (Feb. 4, 2006). Kirby Jones, president of the U.S.-Cuba Trade Association, said the U.S.

government called Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc., and pressured the chain to ask the Cubans to leave, arguing that the U.S. company was violating a 45-year-old U.S. trade embargo against Cuba. Judith Bryan, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, said "U.S. law prohibits U.S. persons and entities from providing services to Cuban national persons or entities, and the Sheraton, as a subsidiary...