Was it right for Washington to expel Cuban diplomats from a privately owned hotel In Mexico City?

BubbaGump

First of all, Washington can not expel anybody from a private establishment. However, if the Embassy (or any other organization) has security concerns about persons who are in a position to do harm to their premises or to conduct espionage around their premises, they can certainly ask the business to kick out the guest/customer. The business does not have to comply, but might want to in order to please the requester.

This would be an entirely optional issue for a private hotel, who could have refused to do as asked, albeit with the warning that they would lose business. Consider this: you have a neighbor who is obnoxious and playing music all night long and you can't sleep. Do you have the right to ask them turn it down, yes. If they comply, fine. But can you force them to turn it down (without calling the cops)? No. If your neighbor wants to stay in your good graces (and not have you wake them up another time) they will do as you request.

Foreign governments routinely do this in order to ensure their safety and security. However, the Sheraton is not a private hotel. The Sheraton chain is a United States registered business, so the issue of asset control comes into play if the hotel did not voluntarily execute the request...see the article from reuters below. By the way, I don't know if Mexican law prohibits hotels from evicting guests, but I doubt it.

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 favored 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 toward the Communist-run island.

(Additional reporting by Sue Pleming in Washington)

James

They didn't force the hotel to do it. They just encouraged them to, and the hotel owners themselves did it. They're just as responsible as the consulate.

RhO NivonoG

No, it was no right. they can have any law, but it cant be aplied outside of the USA. as the director of the hotel says: "it was an order".
The hotel also keeps the money of the cubans and, as the american law says, they sended it to the American antional treasure. In Mx that's anticonstitutional. that's discrimination and also violates the Mx laws, 'cause they are appliying the American law instead the mexican. In Mx any company cant keep the money from no one. it's an american company? yes, but they are constituted as an "services business" in Mx, as any company, Mexican or international, has to do when mounting a business. they should obey the Mx's laws, not the USA's one.

Sagus

I don't think i was right, but I can see the embass's point. The hotel could have refused. They should have talked to the Mexican government about the issue.

Wondering what woman think

The U.S. Embassy can ask anything they want, in Mexico it holds no power. My Guess is if this really happened the Hotel did it as a favor to the Embassy to stay on their good side and get their buisness.

Mexico's Sovereignty has nothing to do with it. Most Mexican are just as Nationalistic as most Americans and wont feel compleled to follow the orders of a forign power unless its of economic benifit.

Stop bashing the U.S. pick on the French instead, they at least deserve it!

jtwb568@yahoo.com

That is very typical of what the America does though. Sad but true.

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