Gail Alexan­der

The Gov­ern­ment was forced to shift the venue for to­mor­row's Cari­com-Cu­ba sum­mit from the Hilton Trinidad Con­fer­ence Cen­tre to the Na­tion­al Acad­e­my for the Per­form­ing Arts (NA­PA), fol­low­ing is­sues con­cern­ing the US em­bar­go on Cu­ba. The US-owned Hilton in T&T was un­able to ob­tain a li­cence from the US Gov­ern­ment in or­der to host the Cari­com-Cu­ba sum­mit, a Hilton state­ment in­di­cat­ed yes­ter­day. Cuban Pres­i­dent Raul Cas­tro ar­rives in T&T at 10.30 am to­day for the one-day sum­mit which will al­so be at­tend­ed by 12 of the 14 Cari­com lead­ers.

The sum­mit brings to­geth­er re­gion­al heads with the leader of Cu­ba. It will be Cas­tro's first vis­it to T&T since he as­sumed the pres­i­den­cy in 2008, suc­ceed­ing his broth­er, for­mer Cuban leader Fi­del Cas­tro. The sum­mit has been held in Cari­com over the last decade as re­gion­al ter­ri­to­ries have deep­ened ties with Cu­ba and seek to fur­ther en­hance co-op­er­a­tion with that coun­try. At the last sum­mit in 2008, then-Cuban Pres­i­dent Fi­del Cas­tro was pre­sent­ed with Cari­com's high­est award-the or­der of Cari­com. T&T had lat­er been des­ig­nat­ed as the lo­ca­tion for the next sum­mit.

The venue for the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny to­mor­row and rest of the event had orig­i­nal­ly been sched­uled for the Hilton. The ho­tel plant is owned by the Gov­ern­ment of T&T and is man­aged by US-owned Hilton com­pa­ny. Del­e­ga­tions of the var­i­ous lead­ers were ex­pect­ed to stay at the Hilton al­so. Last week, how­ev­er, the Gov­ern­ment was in­formed that there were prob­lems with the sit­u­a­tion as a re­sult of the US em­bar­go against Cu­ba. A state­ment from Hilton World­wide-lo­ca­tion of the glob­al head­quar­ters-is­sued yes­ter­day, point­ed out that 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 state­ment added: "The US-Cuban as­sets con­trol reg­u­la­tions ad­min­is­tered by the Of­fice of For­eign As­sets Con­trol at the US De­part­ment of the Trea­sury Gen­er­al pro­hib­it US-based com­pa­nies from pro­vid­ing any ser­vices that ben­e­fit the Cuban gov­ern­ment un­less specif­i­cal­ly li­censed." The state­ment not­ed that vi­o­la­tions are sub­ject to sig­nif­i­cant civ­il and crim­i­nal penal­ties. The Hilton state­ment not­ed that while the ho­tel had worked with the ap­pro­pri­ate gov­ern­men­tal agen­cies in the US and in T&T to se­cure a li­cence for the sum­mit, the ho­tel had been in­formed that the nec­es­sary li­cence would not be grant­ed. The state­ment re­ferred ques­tions to the US Em­bassy in T&T.

In 1996, the US passed the Helms- Bur­ton law which pro­hibits a num­ber of sit­u­a­tions con­cern­ing Cu­ba, in­clud­ing recog­ni­tion of a tran­si­tion­al gov­ern­ment in Cu­ba that in­cludes Fi­del or Ra&ua­cute;l Cas­tro. The law, named for two US sen­a­tors who pi­lot­ed it, strength­ens the US em­bar­go against Cu­ba. Among stip­u­la­tions, any non-US com­pa­ny that deals eco­nom­i­cal­ly with Cu­ba can be sub­ject­ed to le­gal ac­tion and that com­pa­ny's lead­er­ship can be barred from en­try in­to the Unit­ed States. Sanc­tions may al­so be ap­plied to non-US com­pa­nies trad­ing with Cu­ba. This means that in­ter­na­tion­al­ly op­er­at­ing com­pa­nies have to choose be­tween Cu­ba and the US, which is a much larg­er mar­ket.

Speak­ing with the Trinidad Guardian af­ter yes­ter­day's Sen­ate ses­sion, For­eign Af­fairs Min­is­ter Su­ruj Ram­bachan said: "T&T re­spects in­ter­na­tion­al law and un­til that is changed, the host­ing of the func­tion at the Hilton will not be pos­si­ble. "In the cur­rent cir­cum­stances, NA­PA has been cho­sen as the new venue for the open­ing cer­e­mo­ny of the sum­mit," he added. Ram­bachan de­clined fur­ther com­ment. Oth­er of­fi­cials deal­ing with the event said le­gal and con­sti­tu­tion­al ex­perts had ad­vised the Gov­ern­ment to abide by the Helms-Bur­ton agree­ment even though the Hilton is state-owned.

It was point­ed out that for­mer Cuban Pres­i­dent Fi­del Cas­tro stayed at the Hilton when he at­tend­ed the launch of the As­so­ci­a­tion of Caribbean States (ACS) at the ho­tel in 1995. The Guardian, how­ev­er, was in­formed last night that in 1995 when the ACS sum­mit was held Hilton was an in­ter­na­tion­al com­pa­ny and was not ful­ly US-owned. A source ex­plained that the ho­tel chain is now ful­ly US-owned. Con­tact­ed on the is­sue yes­ter­day, US Em­bassy pub­lic af­fairs of­fi­cer Alex McLaren told the Guardian: "Any ques­tions about the venue for the Cari­com-Cu­ba sum­mit would have to be post­ed to the For­eign Af­fairs Min­istry."

McLaren's re­ply was the same when asked about the US' view on the host­ing of the con­fer­ence and Cuban del­e­ga­tion at the Hilton, and on queries about the Helms-Bur­ton law. At 11 am yes­ter­day, a spokesman at the Cuban Em­bassy dis­missed the re­port of a shift of venue as a "non-is­sue." They said ru­mours of the sit­u­a­tion had been cir­cu­lat­ing. Lat­er at 4.41 pm, the spokes­woman main­tained that the venue for the event was the Hilton.

The Guardian con­firmed that del­e­ga­tions at­tached to the 12 Cari­com lead­ers at­tend­ing the event will be stay­ing at the Hilton. The Cuban del­e­ga­tion, how­ev­er, will be stay­ing at Kapok Ho­tel, it was con­firmed. Af­ter Cas­tro's ar­rival this morn­ing, he will hold bi­lat­er­al dis­cus­sions with Prime Min­is­ter Kam­la-Per­sad Bisses­sar and will be host­ed by Per­sad-Bisses­sar at a re­cep­tion lat­er this evening. Of­fi­cials said Cari­com is ex­pect­ed to place on the agen­da, the is­sue of the US em­bar­go on Cu­ba. Se­cu­ri­ty will be heavy for Cas­tro's vis­it.A spe­cial bul­let­proof ve­hi­cle is be­ing pro­vid­ed for the Cuban Pres­i­dent, the Gov­ern­ment has con­firmed.