Four Year Experiment Ends In Cuba For Marriott International. Did Trump Administration Require Equipment To Be Returned To U.S.?
/"We can confirm that starting tomorrow (Tuesday) Marriott will no longer be operating the Four Points by Sheraton in Havana," said Ms. Kerstin Sachl, the company’s Director of Communication for Latin America and the Caribbean for Marriott International, to Paris, France-based EFE.
NOTE: As of 1 September 2020 the hotel has been renamed Quinta Avenida Habana Hotel
Post From 5 June 2020
Trump Administration Will Not Renew Marriott OFAC License To Manage Hotels In Cuba
Statement of Marriott International: "Marriott International has been notified by the U.S. Department of Treasury that we must wind down our operation of the Four Points Sheraton in Havana, Cuba by August 31, and that we will not be permitted to open other hotels in Cuba that have been in preparation. We entered the Cuban market in 2016, with permission from the U.S. government. Our operating license was reviewed and renewed in 2018. We have recently received notice that the government-issued license will not be renewed, forcing Marriott to cease operations in Cuba. Marriott continues to believe that Cuba is a destination that travelers, including Americans, want to visit. Marriott looks forward to reopening in Cuba if and when the US Government gives us permission to do business there again."
From the moment in November 2016 when Donald Trump became President-Elect Donald Trump, all licenses from the OFAC to United States companies for commercial activity in Cuba had a bullseye painted upon them. If President Obama's name was attached to an initiative, it was prepared for execution.
The Trump Administration decision for the OFAC not to renew the license of Marriott International is not surprising, but is disappointing as the Four Points By Sheraton Havana was the sole space for employees who are Cuban to learn about how a global United States company operates and position them for opportunities in the hospitality sector.
The Trump Administration viewed the operation by Marriott International similar to how it viewed cruise ship operations- an example of Obama Administration policy failure to change Cuba rather than provide Cuba with additional revenues which are used to forestall necessary commercial and economic changes vital to the country.
From The Miami Herald: "We recently received a notice that the government-issued license will not be renewed, forcing Marriott to suspend its operations in Cuba," said Kerstin Sachl, the company's director of Public Relations for Latin America and the Caribbean.”
Second-largest certified claimant, Bethesda, Maryland-based Marriott International, Inc. (2019 revenues approximately US$21 billion) and its subsidiary, Stamford, Connecticut-based Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide LLC, have a series of two-year licenses from the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the United States Department of the Treasury in Washington DC to manage two (2) properties located in the Republic of Cuba.
The largest certified claim (Cuban Electric Company) valued at US$267,568,413.62 is controlled by Boca Raton, Florida-based Office Depot, Inc. The second-largest certified claim (International Telephone and Telegraph Co, ITT as Trustee, Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.) valued at US$181,808,794.14 is controlled by Marriott International; the certified claim also includes land adjacent to the Jose Marti International Airport in Havana, Republic of Cuba.
The OFAC licenses were first issued in March 2016 during the Obama Administration and were renewed during the Trump Administration, although there has been a reported delay by the OFAC in transferring the licenses from Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide LLC to Marriott International.
Both properties (one currently through Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide LLC) are in the city of Havana, the 186-room Four Points by Sheraton Havana (which employs approximately 125 Republic of Cuba citizens) and 83-room Hotel Inglaterra (delayed opening without public explanation from December 2016 to December 2017 to December 2019 to “sometime” in 2020).
Both properties are owned by entities controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of the Republic of Cuba (FAR).
Marriott International reported that the OFAC-authorized management contract for at least one of the properties requires the investment of millions of United States Dollars; unstated as to the shared responsibility for that investment.
