Person of the week

CEO Melià International Hotels Gabriel Escarrer in Palma. | Majorca Daily Bulletin reporter

Andrew EdePalma10/02/2020 12:49

... was Meliá Hotels International CEO Gabriel Escarrer, who one day discovered that the American magazine Forbes had listed him among the fifty top CEOs in Spain over the past decade and the next day found that the American government had barred him from entering the country.

The reason for this had to do with the Helms-Burton Act, which was passed in 1996 but never activated until Donald Trump decided to do so. The Spanish government, not exactly on the best terms with the Americans, has made it clear that it will give the likes of Meliá its full support against Helms-Burton, which is considered by the European Union to violate international law.