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| http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissi...918&cKey=113938
0529000
MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Protesters waving Cuban flags blocked the entrance to a
U.S.-owned Sheraton hotel in Mexico City on Tuesday, calling for it to be closed
because it evicted Cuban officials on orders from Washington.
About 30 people shouted "Yankees out" as they demonstrated outside the hotel
over its eviction of the 16 Cubans who were staying there last week for a
conference with U.S. energy companies.
Presidential spokesman Ruben Aguilar said Mexico was looking into the evictions
and would apply the full force of the law against the Sheraton if a crime had
been committed.
"It is an unacceptable application of a foreign law in our country, which goes
against all principles of international law," Mexican Foreign Minister Luis
Derbez said in a radio interview.
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc., which owns Sheraton hotels, said it
had been asked by the U.S. Treasury Department to tell the Cuban officials to
leave the hotel because of the terms of the U.S. embargo on the island.
Mexican newspapers were filled with angry opinion pieces railing against
perceived U.S. meddling in Mexico.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Sheraton in
Mexico City was a subsidiary of an American-owned hotel group and therefore
subject to U.S. laws and regulations.
"Very basically, U.S. law would apply to U.S. corporations or subsidiaries of
U.S. corporations, no matter where they may be -- whether it's in Mexico City or
in Europe or South America," McCormack said.
He said the Mexican government had contacted the State Department about the
matter, adding that it was the Treasury Department that enforced these laws. "We
view this as a matter of asset control," McCormack said.
The Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control, which enforces the embargo
against Cuba, insists it is illegal to provide services to Cuban nationals and
entities in third countries.
Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist candidate favoured to win Mexico's July
presidential elections, said the evictions were "in bad taste."
"Foreign laws cannot be applied in our country," he said on his morning
television show.
Mexico's relations with the United States have suffered a string of setbacks in
recent months. There have been angry words over drug violence along their shared
border, U.S. plans to build a border fence to stop illegal immigrants and the
killing of an undocumented Mexican by the U.S. Border Patrol.
Mexico's friendship with Cuba also has suffered in recent years as President
Vicente Fox abandoned Mexico's traditionally sympathetic stance towards the
Communist-run island.
(Additional reporting by Sue Pleming in Washington)
http://www.swissinfo.org/sen/swissi...918&cKey=113938
0529000
Alan
"Can't you see we're still here,
Can't you see we're still here,
Singing loud; Singing clear,
We shall not go under,
We're still here."
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