Credit:  hotelmanagement.net /  Gabriel Escarrer, Meliá Hotels International CEO

By Gary Raynaldo         DIPLOMATIC  TIMES

The Chief Executive Officer and VP of Spain Meliá Hotels International Gabriel Escarrer has been banned from entering the United States due his company’s investments’s in Cuba. Apparently, the action by the U.S. Department of State to sanction Escarrer was made under Title IV of the U.S. Helms-Burton legislation, that directs the Department to deny visas to any foreign nationals who it believes traffic in confiscated property in Cuba or are corporate officers or shareholders of involved entities.  Meliá Hotels said in a statement that it had been notified last October in a letter from the U.S. Department of State that if it did “not accept within 45 days a series of conditions related to the activity of subsidiary companies in the Republic of Cuba”, its CEO would be prohibited from entering the United States. 

Spanish Chain Meliá Hit With $10 Million Lawsuit For Its Cuba Hotels Under U.S. Helms Burton

Photo by:  Gary Raynaldo /  The Spain-owned Meliá Cohiba hotel across from  Malecón sea in Havana, Cuba.

In June 2019,  descendants of former Cuban businessman Rafael Lucas Sanchez Hill  filed a lawsuit in Spain against the Meliá  that sought to recover $10 Million as indemnification for Cuba lands seized by the government in 1960, after Fidel Castro seized control of the island.  President Trump opened the door last year for lawsuits over Cuban confiscated properties. The Trump administration announced last month it is allowing former owners of commercial property expropriated by Cuba to sue companies and the Cuban government for using or “trafficking” in those confiscated holdings.  It was the first lawsuit ever filed in Spain by Cuban Americans against Spanish companies that benefit from expropriated properties in Cuba.  The lawsuit followed the Trump administration’s full implementation of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act on May 2, 2019.  The law allows owners of properties confiscated by the Castro Revolution to file suits in US courts against entities that “traffic” in those properties.

Spain Court Tosses Out Lawsuit Against Meliá Hotels Operations In Cuba

Photo by:  Gary Raynaldo /  The Spain-owned Meliá Cohiba hotel across from  Malecón sea in Havana, Cuba.

Then in September 2019, a court in Spain dismissed a lawsuit against Meliá Hotels International relating to operations in Cuba. The action by the Spanish court could have ramifications for the recently activated U.S. Helms-Burton Act.  .  According to the Spanish Court  Order, a court in Spain has no authority to determine whether the nationalization conducted by the Cuban state in 1960 was lawful or not.  According to the judge, in application of article 21 of the Organic Law of the Judiciary (LOPJ), “the Spanish civil courts do not have jurisdiction to hear the claim that has given rise to this lawsuit” and since it is a property owned by a State “it also has jurisdictional immunity.”  The Order further stated that a Spanish Court is not competent to assess, among other things, whether the nationalization carried out  by the Cuban government in 1960 was legal or illegal.