Cuba protests PriceSmart's suspension of memberships in Jamaica

Cuba protests PriceSmart's suspension of memberships in Jamaica

By Aileen Torres-Bennett



KINGSTON, April 11 (Reuters) - Cuba is protesting the decision by

PriceSmart Inc, a major U.S.-based bulk-shopping warehouse, to suspend

memberships of shoppers from the communist country at its Jamaica

subsidiary, Cuban officials said on Friday.



PriceSmart took the action this week, citing the decades-old U.S.

embargo on Cuba that prohibits economic relations between the two

countries, Cuban officials say.



PriceSmart did not respond to a request for comment, and has declined to

tell the Jamaican media why it suspended the memberships at this time.



Jamaica is increasingly popular with Cuban shoppers, and Havana lifted

restrictions on travel last year, allowing wealthier Cubans to leave the

country on shopping trips abroad.



One diplomatic source familiar with Cuba said PriceSmart may have

suspected large-scale purchases were being made on behalf of Cuban

government contractors, a potential embargo violation.



PriceSmart, based in San Diego, California, is the largest operator of

membership warehouse clubs in Central America and the Caribbean, with 32

stores serving more than 1 million cardholders in those regions and

South America.



The company told Jamaican media it will only reinstate memberships for

Cuban embassy staff and citizens who can provide proof of permanent

residency in Jamaica.



"It's a U.S. company, and their subsidiaries cannot sell to Cuba," said

Susan Kaufman Purcell, director of the Center for Hemispheric Policy at

the University of Miami.



Jamaica's Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade is trying to

broker a resolution between PriceSmart and the Cuban embassy, according

to local media. Ministry officials could not be reached immediately for

comment.



The U.S. embargo on Cuba has been in place more than 50 years. The Obama

administration has begun to soften restrictions on travel and

remittances to Cuba, but normalized relations are still a ways off.



Cuban ambassador to Jamaica Bernardo Guanche Hernández, quoted in

Jamaican media, condemned PriceSmart's membership suspension move,

calling it "criminal" and adding that repeated United Nations

resolutions have called for an end to the embargo.



Cuban officials declined to comment publicly on the matter to Reuters

but complained privately that the PriceSmart issue was a sign that the

Obama administration continues to tightly enforce the embargo.



The ambassador also suggested the action was a violation of the Vienna

Convention on Diplomatic Relations.



The Vienna Convention protects diplomats against persecution by a host

country, but "this is not persecution by the host country," said

Purcell. "This is a subsidiary of a U.S. company." (Additional reporting

by David Adams Editing by Kevin Gray, Richard Chang and Ken Wills)



Source: Cuba protests PriceSmart's suspension of memberships in Jamaica

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