Helms Wants Hoteliers' Visas Revoked

Monday, November 20th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

WASHINGTON (AP) â€” Sen. Jesse Helms is calling on the State Department to revoke the visas of officers and directors of a Spanish hotel company on grounds that the firm is operating in Cuba on property confiscated from U.S. nationals.

Helms, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued his appeal in a letter last Thursday to Thomas Pickering, the State Department's third ranking official. A copy of the letter was made available on Monday.

Helms, R-N.C., said the Spanish hotel company Grupo Sol Melia has run afoul of a law Helms co-authored in 1996 to punish foreign companies that operate on properties seized by Cuba from their American owners.

The letter says that Grupo Sol Melia ``knowing and willfully'' has been operating on property taken from U.S. nationals who owned an enterprise called Central Santa Lucia.

Grupo Sol Melia is the largest hotelier in Cuba. Its holdings include many of the most luxurious hotels on the island.

The State Department had no comment on Helms' letter. Pickering was traveling in Colombia on Monday.

Helms said the alleged activities of Grupo Sol Melia is known to State Department officials who have been investigating whether there were any violations of the 1996 law.

``As such, the State Department is required by the 'Libertad' act to notify officers and directors of Grupo Sol Melia that, after a 45-day period, they will forfeit their U.S. visas and be excluded from the United States,'' Helms wrote.