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Hilton blocked from hosting Caricom conference attended by Cuban president
By Julien Neaves
Story Created: Dec 6, 2011 at 11:57 PM ECT
Story Updated: Dec 6, 2011 at 11:57 PM ECT
US-BASED hotel chain Hilton Worldwide has been denied a special licence from the US Government to allow for the IV Caricom/Cuba Summit to be held at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre with visiting Cuban President Raul Castro.
The two-day summit, which starts today, will instead be held at the National Academy for the Performing Arts (NAPA) in Port of Spain.
Castro, who arrives in Trinidad and Tobago this morning and leaves on Friday, will be staying at the Kapok Hotel, St Clair, though according to officials at the Foreign Affairs Ministry and the Cuban Embassy, this was his original accommodation.
Asked yesterday whether Hilton Trinidad had declined Castro accommodation, Foreign Affairs Minister Dr Suruj Rambachan said he did not know anything about that. He said, though, that due to Castro's large delegation, they had to be accommodated at the Kapok hotel.
He could not be reached last night in light of the new information from Hilton Worldwide.
Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre general manager Ali Khan last night read to the Express a statement from Hilton Worldwide, entitled "Hilton Worldwide regarding Caricom/Cuba Summit".
He read: "As a US-based company, Hilton Worldwide is subject to US law, which restricts certain activities as a result of the trade embargo with Cuba. The US/Cuban assets control regulations administered by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) at the US Department of the Treasury generally prohibits US-based companies from providing any services that benefit the Cuban Government unless specifically licensed. Violations are subject to significant civil and criminal penalties.
"While we have worked with the appropriate governmental agencies in the US and Trinidad and Tobago to secure a licence, we have been informed that one will not be granted."
According to the US Treasury website, OFAC "administers and enforces US economic and trade sanctions against targeted foreign countries".
Hilton Worldwide advised in its letter that further questions should be posed to the US Embassy in Trinidad and Tobago. Attempts to contact officials at the US Embassy in Trinidad last night via telephone were unsuccessful.
A media release from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, dated December 1, 2011, stated that the summit would be held at the Hilton Trinidad and Conference Centre; but in a follow-up release on December 6, it stated the summit would be held "in Port of Spain". A release from Government Information Services Ltd, dated December 5, stated that the summit would be held at NAPA between today and tomorrow.
At the 2008 Caricom/Cuba Summit in Cuba, 14 Caribbean heads of state called on US President Barack Obama to remove the decades-old trade embargo between the US and Cuba.
The embargo still stands today with minor adjustments.
Courtesy calls for Castro
During his two-day visit to Trinidad and Tobago, Cuban President Raul Castro is scheduled to lay a wreath at the Cenotaph, Memorial Park.
He will also pay courtesy calls on Prime Minister Kamla Persad-Bissessar, with whom he will also attend a bilateral meeting, and President George Maxwell Richards.
Castro is scheduled to arrive in Trinidad and Tobago today for his first State visit to this country.
During his visit, he will be participating in the fourth Caricom-Cuba Summit today and tomorrow at the National Academy for the Performing Arts in Port of Spain.
The other scheduled participants at the Summit are 15 heads of state/ Government of Caricom member states, Caricom Secretary General Irwin LaRocque and Director General of the Organisation of Eastern Caribbean States Dr Len Ishmael.
President Richards and his wife, Dr Jean Ramjohn-Richards, will be hosting a State dinner tonight, on the occasion of the visit. Castro is scheduled to leave Trinidad on Friday.
Castro has served as President of Cuba since his brother, Fidel, resigned in 2008 after 49 years as Cuba's leader, the latter receiving Caricom's highest honour, the Order of the Caribbean Community, that same year.
The first Caricom-Cuba Summit was held in Havana, Cuba, on December 8, 2002, and the Havana Declaration was adopted on the 30th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Cuba and the four Caricom countries that were independent at that time—Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica and Trinidad and Tobago. It was also decided to commemorate December 8 each year as Cuba-Caricom Day, and to establish a summit every three years on that date.
Two further high-level meetings between Caricom and Cuba have been held—in Barbados in 2005, and in Santiago de Cuba in 2008.
Fidel Castro visited Trinidad and Tobago in 1995, when he attended a conference of the Association of Caribbean States, which was held at the Hilton.
—JN
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