SUPERCLUBS has been forced to pull out of two hotels
in Cuba after becoming embroiled in a political land dispute between the US and
Cuban governments.
The company confirmed it has withdrawn
from Breezes Costa Verde and the new Grand Lido Varadero after US officials
threatened to ban senior Superclubs executives from the country.
Other UK operators have insisted they will continue to
sell the properties.
Breezes Costa Verde is thought to be at the centre of
the controversy which the US says was developed on land allegedly confiscated
from Cuban Americans in the days following Fidel Castro’s 1959 revolution.
Under a little-used US law – known as the Helms-Burton
Act – overseas companies can be sued for investing in the land.
While US officials said a Cuban-American family, whose
land was seized, was preparing to take legal action, it was the threat to deny executives
entry into the US which is believed to have forced the climbdown.
A brief statement from Superclubs said it had bowed to
pressure from the US and “relinquished its holding in two resorts”.