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Controversial order to close Mexican hotel under attack

Business groups and the federal government criticized a Mexico City official's decision to slap a temporary closure order on a major US-owned hotel for alleged code violations several weeks after the hotel expelled a delegation of Cuban officials.

The leftist city government's apparent use of seldom-applied regulations to punish the US hotel threatens to tarnish efforts by Mexico's left to depict itself as moderate and business-friendly ahead of the July 2 presidential elections, they said.

"They have used absurd pretexts to justify the closure of the hotel, like saying the restaurant lacks a braille menu, or that 10 percent of stairs lacked anti-skid strips," Tourism Secretary Rodolfo Elizondo said in a statement on Tuesday.

The move "puts at risk the jobs of the personnel who work there, affects Mexico's image as a tourism destination and discourages investment," the statement continued.

Despite the "closed" stickers plastered by city employees on the front doors, the Sheraton Maria Isabel Hotel appeared to be operating almost normally on Tuesday, with guests coming and going through other entrances. A desk clerk said the hotel was still accepting reservations.

Virginia Jaramillo -- head of the downtown borough where the hotel is located -- told local media she was giving the hotel 24 hours to move out guests, and that it would have to close down operations by mid-day yesterday.

In a press statement, the hotel said it has asked city officials for an extension of that deadline, arguing "it is materially impossible to relocate our 550 guests tonight."

Jaramillo originally suggested the hotel was targeted for closure because of residents' complaints of code violations.

But on Tuesday, Jaramillo made it clear the inspection and complaints both originated in the hotel's decision to expel 16 Cuban oil industry officials attending a conference with US companies on Feb. 2.

The US Treasury Department said the hotel had to expel the Cubans to avoid violating the long-standing US embargo against the communist-ruled island. But most Mexicans were angered by efforts to apply US laws here, and the expulsions caused widespread resentment.

However, the harsh reaction by city officials may backfire.

Leftist presidential candidate Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador -- the former mayor of Mexico City who, like Jaramillo, belongs to the leftist Democratic Revolution Party -- has gone to great lengths to avoid being labeled a radical, and has stressed that "we don't have differences with businessmen."
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