Meliá Hotels International has confirmed that its executive vice president and CEO, Gabriel Escarrer, received on October 11 a notification from the US Department of State in which, in application of Title IV of the Liberty Act - Law Helms Burton -, and if they did not accept a series of conditions in their activity on the Republic of Cuba, they would be prohibited from accessing the country.

However, these conditions "imposed by the US Government are not acceptable to the company" and alleges that their compliance is contrary to European regulations - known as the Statute of Blockade - which considers that "the Helms Burton Act violates the most elementary principles of International right".

Following this community regulation, Meliá has transferred the resolution of this issue to the Spanish institutions and community authorities, "trusting that their dedication, diligence and close collaboration will end up giving a satisfactory solution."

The company notes that the US Administration linked this notification to the activity that certain Meliá subsidiaries have with Cuban public entities. Specifically, it refers to the management of two hotels in the Holguin region , which would be located, "to understand" the said Administration, "on a plot of property expropriated from the Sánchez Hill family in the late 1950s. This The family has already filed a lawsuit against Meliá in Spain for these events, although it was dismissed by the courts in the first instance.

The Helms-Burton Act, passed in 1996, gave Americans the right to sue companies around the world to profit from assets confiscated by the Castro authorities, but all American governments had nullified this clause until it lifted on May 2.

However, the hotel has reiterated its "respect and confidence in the involvement and impulse" towards a "positive" solution by the Spanish and community authorities, as well as in the courts. In addition, it has insisted on the "loyalty, legality and responsibility" with which its subsidiaries "have always carried out their business management in Cuba." Therefore, he said that he hopes that the controversy produced by the activation of the Helms Burton Act will be "resolved in a favorable manner" to the interests of the group. "

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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