Mexico City – The Mexican government fined the Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel about $112,000 (euro94,000) on Friday for expelling Cuban guests under pressure from the U.S. Treasury Department.
The fine was handed out by Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department, which said in a news release that the hotel had broken national commerce laws.
The Sheraton hotel, located in Mexico City’s historic center, kicked out 16 Cuban officials attending a Feb. 2 meeting with U.S. oil executives.
The order came after the hotel received a warning from the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control that it was in danger of violating a four-decade trade embargo against the regime of Cuban President Fidel Castro.
The New York-based Starwood Hotels & Resorts Inc, which owns the hotel, could not be reached for comment Friday.
The February expulsion provoked an angry response from officials in Havana and Mexican lawmakers who said it smacked of U.S. intervention in their affairs.
The Mexico City government, run by the leftist Democratic Revolution Party, threatened to shut down the hotel over the incident but eventually backed off and took no action.
In February, the National Foreign Trade Council, which represents hundreds of U.S. businesses, wrote a letter to Treasury Secretary John Snow urging the department not to continue putting companies in such a difficult position.
The Treasury Department responded saying that it was not considering any changes in its enforcement activities.
The trade embargo against Cuba began in 1963 when Cuba was added to a list of countries covered by the 1917 Trading with the Enemy Act. The law prohibits U.S. citizens and U.S. companies from doing business with countries on the list.
In 2000, Congress passed a law that allows cash sales of food and other agricultural products to Cuba.
