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Embargo forces Raúl Castro to change hotels

 
 

Cuba's President Raul Castro is greeted by a Trinidadian coast guard officer, name not available, as Castro attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Conotaph Memorial Park, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Wed. Dec. 7th, 2011. Behind Castro is Trinidad and Tobago's President George Maxwell Richards. Castro is in Trinidad to attend a summit with other Caribbean leaders. (AP Photo/Shirley Bahadur)
Cuba's President Raul Castro is greeted by a Trinidadian coast guard officer, name not available, as Castro attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Conotaph Memorial Park, Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago, Wed. Dec. 7th, 2011. Behind Castro is Trinidad and Tobago's President George Maxwell Richards. Castro is in Trinidad to attend a summit with other Caribbean leaders. (AP Photo/Shirley Bahadur)
Shirley Bahadur / AP

Miami Herald Staff

The U.S. embargo on Cuba has forced the government of Trinidad and Tobago to shift a summit of Cuban and Caribbean Community leaders out of the Hilton Trinidad Conference Center in Port of Spain, according to a news media report Wednesday.

Trinidad’s Guardian newspaper reported that the U.S.-owned Hilton Worldwide, which manages the center, had announced that Washington would not issue it the license required for “providing any services that benefit the Cuban government.”

Cuban ruler Raúl Castro and his delegation were shifted to rooms at the nearby Kapok Hotel, according to the Guardian, while the delegations from the two other Caribbean Community (Caricom) member nations attending the event will remain at the Hilton.

The one-day Cuba-Caricom summit on Thursday, the fourth such gathering held over the last decade to deepen the commercial ties between the Caribbean islands, was shifted to the National Academy for the Performing Arts, according to the Guardian.

The Hilton hotel and conference center are owned by the government of Trinidad and Tobago but are managed by Hilton, which must obey U.S. embargo requirements because it is registered in the United States.

Castro was greeted with a 21-gun salute when he arrived in Port of Spain on Wednesday and insisted on reviewing a reception line of Trinidad and Tobago troops despite a strong rain, according to an Associated Press report.

The Guardian reported that Castro was scheduled to meet later Wednesday with Trinidad and Tobago Prime Minister Kamla-Persad Bissessar.

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