Mexico lifts hotel closure order in US-Cuba spat

Mexico lifts hotel closure order in US-Cuba spat
Wed Mar 1, 2006 09:47 PM ET

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Mexico City authorities lifted a closure order
on a Sheraton hotel on Wednesday, a day after they demanded it shut in a
dispute over the U.S.-ordered expulsion of a group of Cubans meeting there.

"We are confident that in these few hours the hotel has rectified
practically all the irregularities," city official Virginia Jaramillo
told reporters after hotel managers met with government officials and
the local American Chamber of Commerce.

Mexico City authorities slapped "closed" stickers on the hotel on
Tuesday on the grounds it breached safety and licensing laws, but the
Sheraton remained open, arguing it could not kick out its 550 guests
with no warning.

The move came after the Sheraton, on the capital's Reforma Avenue,
angered Mexican officials last month by obeying orders from Washington
to throw out a group of Cuban officials because of the U.S. embargo on
the communist-run island. Sheraton is owned by a U.S.-based company,
Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Inc.

The 755-room hotel, which overlooks the towering Angel of Independence
monument, said it threw the Cubans out on the orders of the U.S.
Treasury Department, cutting short an energy conference hosted by the
U.S.-Cuba Trade Association.

Mexican officials said the country's sovereignty had been abused and
deployed a team of inspectors who reported the hotel had carried out
unauthorized construction work and lacked bar licenses, parking spaces
and emergency exits.

Osvaldo Librizzi, Starwood's Latin American president, said the hotel
would comply with all the inspectors' demands.

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