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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | February 2006 
US-Owned Hotel Caught in the Middle
 Jonathan Roeder - Miami Herald
| | The US-Cuba confrontation has involved an American-owned hotel in Mexico City because of contradictory U.S. and Mexican laws. |
Mexico City - The venerable Hotel Sheraton María Isabel is one of the Mexican capital's oldest five-star hotels, on its main Reforma Avenue and next to the city's emblematic Angel of Independence monument.
But these days the hotel also has been a lightning rod for U.S.-Mexican tensions, presidential campaign jabs and even complaints of U.S. violations of Mexico's sovereignty.
The brouhaha started Feb. 4, when the hotel expelled several Cuban government officials staying there for a seminar with U.S. energy executives. U.S. Treasury officials told the hotel's American owners that they could be violating U.S. economic sanctions of the communist-ruled island.
Mexico's Foreign Relations and Tourism ministries, along with the Consumer Protection Agency, now say the hotel may have broken Mexican laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of nationality. Fines could total $500,000.
But it has been the Cuauhtémoc borough, where the hotel is located, that has been most vigorous in its actions. Code inspectors have found a long list of violations at the hotel, ranging from the absence of required Braille menus to unlicensed bars and insufficient emergency exits.
JUST DOING THEIR JOB
Cuauhtémoc chief Virginia Jaramillo has said her inspectors are only trying to do their jobs. But Jaramillo, a member of the left-of-center Democratic Revolution Party, has also told reporters the inspections were inspired by "patriotism."
Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the party's candidate in presidential elections set for July, has not mentioned the issue in his campaign speeches. But his party has accused conservative President Vicente Fox of reacting too weakly to the U.S.Treasury pressures.
"They say that we are scaring off foreign investment by going against the hotel," Jaramillo said. "The first thing this government should do is defend our national sovereignty."
Jeffrey Davidow, former U.S. ambassador to Mexico and now president of the Institute of the Americas at the University of California-San Diego, says that both governments mishandled the situation.
"This seems to be overzealousness on the part of the Treasury Department," he said. "But poor management on the part of the U.S. government should not generate equal incompetence on the part of the Mexicans in going after the Sheraton, which is something of a victim in this."
He added that threats to close the hotel were "an abuse of power."
The Sheraton was recently granted an injunction blocking any order to close while the hotel appeals Jaramillo's actions.
BORDER DEBATE
The Foreign Ministry's low-key response to the Sheraton case contrasts with the recent and very public volleys between the Fox administration and current U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza over drug trafficking and lack of security on the U.S.-Mexico border.
For months, Garza has been calling on Mexico to step up security on the border. Mexico has bristled at the criticism, saying that border security is the responsibility of both sides.
"In recent months, the level of rhetoric on both sides has gone up too high," Davidow said. "I think the Fox government, if they are trying to tamp this particular issue down, they're doing the right thing. Hopefully, cooler heads will prevail."
Meanwhile, the hotel and its more than 600 employees face an uncertain future, and the U.S. business community in Mexico is concerned.
Larry Rubin, head of the American Chamber of Commerce in Mexico, which represents 93 percent of U.S. investment here, said that a special workshop is being organized to advise companies on how to comply with U.S. sanctions on Cuba.
"This is an issue where, if they follow Mexican law, they can be prosecuted in the States, and if they follow U.S. law here in Mexico, they'll certainly be prosecuted by the Mexican authorities," Rubin said.
"It's a very difficult situation for businesses here, and in particular U.S. businesses." |
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