Posted on 01/05/2007 2:38:21 PM PST by presidio9
Norway and Cuba on Friday deplored the decision of a U.S.-owned hotel in Oslo to deny lodging to a Cuban delegation in compliance with U.S. trade sanctions against Havana.
Norway's main trade union LO threatened to boycott the Scandic hotel chain, owned by the U.S.-based Hilton Hotels Corp., if it did not reverse its policy.
The Scandic Edderkoppen hotel in Oslo refused to book rooms for a 14-member Cuban delegation planning to attend a travel fair in the Norwegian capital next week.
"These actions from Scandic managers are totally unacceptable," deputy Foreign Minister Raymond Johansen told Reuters by telephone.
"In Norway we are based on Norwegian law and Norwegian practices, not those of any other country," he said.
Cuba accused Europe of bowing to American pressure.
"Helms-Burton rules in Europe," the ruling Communist Party newspaper Granma said in a front-page story that slammed the Norwegian hotel for what it said was kowtowing to Washington.
The 1996 Helms-Burton law, which codified trade and financial sanctions enforced since 1962 against Fidel Castro's communist government, bans U.S. companies and subsidiaries from doing business with Cuba.
Johansen said the Norwegian government would have to take up the issue with Washington.
The LO union, which is allied to Norway's center-left government, said it was "deeply shocked" by the hotel's policy, saying it was a "clear breach of Norwegian law, which forbids discrimination based on nationality."
"We find it to be a very serious matter that a Norwegian hotel chain maintains the United States' boycott of Cuba," the union said in a statement on its Web site.
Last year the U.S.-owned Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel in Mexico City expelled a delegation of 16 Cubans to comply with U.S. sanctions against Cuba.
The decision sparked protests in Mexico and led authorities to slap the hotel with a $112,000 fine. (Additional reporting by Anthony Boadle in Havana)
The Hilton family's ethos is another issue.
Wow, can't believe I'm saying it but high five to Hilton.
Since it's a tourist hotel in Oslo catering to foreigners, that should have exactly zero effect. Boycott to your hearts' delight Norwegian socialists.
Didn't fidel seize a Hilton hotel when he took power in Cuba?
Elsewise we should not complain when foreign firms ignore our labor laws & etc.
All these decades of trade restrictions with Cuba have achieved precisely what?
In what way is trade with China different than with Cuba?
Or with Saudi Arabia?
1) Cuba seized a lot of American assets in the revolution.
2) We got egg on our face multiple times from Castro
But generally I agree with you. Castro effectively won; he's going to die of old age, and Cuban communism will probably outlive him. The Cuban people are the real losers in this embargo. We should keep trade open with Cuba and periodically drop planeloads of liberator style firearms over the country.
"American firms in foreign lands should abide bythe laws of the host country the same as we expect foreign firms doing business here to abide by our laws.'
Back in the seventies, MLW-Worthington-Studebaker (yes, that Studebaker) had a Canadian subsidiary that manufactured locomotives. Pressure from the US on the American headquarters resulted in the Canadian subsidiary being ordered to cancel the sale of some locomotive engines to Cuba.
There was a large uproar over Canada's loss of sovereignty, and MLW was taken to court. I don't remember what happened, but people were wondering just what the US was afraid of.
Were there visions of diesel locomotives churning up a rooster tail of sand as they roared onto the beaches of Miami?
Typical socialist total dishonesty:
1) It is a ban strictly on communist Cuban party operatives, NOT any nationality. Any free Cuban exile is allowed in any hotel.
2) Ordinary Cubans are strictly forbidden to enter the luxury CUBAN hotels that cater to EuroTrash and party members only.
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