Jamaica
News - Real Estate - General (June 30, 2004)
Jamaica
encourages business ties with Cuba despite U.S. pressure
The Jamaican government
said Tuesday it will continue to encourage business relations with Cuba, despite
ongoing pressure by the United States to discourage investment by foreign
companies in the communist nation.
Jamaica regards Cuba as a "close and
valued neighbor" as well as a "member of the Caribbean family"
and hopes to further strengthen the two countries' trade and economic links,
Foreign Minister Keith Desmond Knight told reporters Tuesday during a two-day
visit to Cuba.
The visit by Knight, who is also foreign trade
minister, came two weeks after Jamaican hotel chain SuperClubs announced it
pulled out of two Cuban resort properties after threats from the U.S. government
that company executives would not be allowed into the United States.
According to SuperClubs, in letters last month
U.S. officials said they were taking the measure because one of the company's
resorts in Cuba was on property confiscated from Americans.
U.S. officials notified executives that visas
would be denied to top officers, shareholders and their direct relatives within
45 days if it didn't divest itself from a 500-room resort in Holguin, in eastern
Cuba.
The Kingston-based chain "removed any
connection" with two of its four properties in Cuba and claimed to be the
victim of a political spat, SuperClubs owner and chairman John Issa stated.
The other two properties in Cuba continue
operating.
Despite the SuperClubs incident, a business
representative of the Jamaican government also in Havana said he believed most
private companies in Jamaica would resist any future U.S. pressure.
"One or two companies will feel intimidated,
but the majority of businesses in Jamaica are disposed to doing business with
Cuba," said Victor Salazar, the regional manager of Jamaica Promotions
Corporation, a state agency.
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