throughout the city were briefly closed, but protests by Havana casino workers led to their reopening in February. Castro gave his first press conference in the hotel's ballroom on January 19, 1959 and soon took to giving regular interviews to international journalists in the hotel, famously declaring in the lobby that "If the Americans don’t like what is happening in Cuba, they can land the Marines, and then there will be 200,000 gringos dead." On June 21, 1959, the revolutionary government temporarily released mob boss Santo Trafficante Jr. from the Triscornia prison camp, under guard, so he could attend the wedding of his daughter Mary Jo in the ballroom of the Habana Hilton. In October 1959, the Habana Hilton hosted the week-long American Society of Travel Agents annual international convention, which had been scheduled before the Revolution. Castro and other officials attempted to present an image of Cuba as a continued tropical paradise for American tourists, as the country desperately needed the revenue, but growing anti-American political rhetoric was already having an impact on bookings at the increasingly empty hotel. On New Year's Eve 1959/1960, Castro hosted an elaborate party in the Pavilion ballroom atop the hotel, designed to promote Cuba to Americans. The party was attended by numerous American journalists and celebrities, including boxer Joe Louis, who had been hired by a PR firm to encourage black Americans to visit the island. The efforts proved unsuccessful, and the Hilton's American operators struggled to keep the hotel open. Hilton Hotels International was forbidden under Cuban labor laws from firing any of the hotel's 670 employees, though the Hilton seldom had more than 100 guests. The Revolutionary government was eventually compelled to guarantee a bank loan of 2 million pesos to Hoteles Hilton de Cuba, S.A., the Cuban subsidiary of Hilton Hotels International that operated the hotel, to cover the Habana Hilton's operating expenses, and keep its employees working. In January 1960, Castro is reported to have survived a dramatic assassination attempt at the hotel. Castro's American mistress, Marita Lorenz, had lived with him in the hotel for much of 1959, before returning to the United States, allegedly after an abortion. In the US, she claims she was approached by agents linked to the US Mafia and the CIA, who gave her Botulinum toxin pills. She smuggled the pills back into Cuba, intending to drop them into Castro's drink, killing him