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A classic car drives on a road in Havana on Tuesday, with the U.S. Embassy in the Cuban capital seen in the background. (Adalberto Roque\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\nSpanish hotel chain Meli\u00e1 has joined a growing list of companies with long-standing operations in Cuba that are withdrawing from or limiting their business on the island after the U.S. announced new sanctions while maintaining an oil embargo.<\/p>\n
Meli\u00e1 will cease operations at 15 of the 34 hotels it manages on the island, according to state website Cubadebate, dealing a blow to Cuba’s vital tourism sector, which has struggled since its 2019 peak. <\/p>\n
The report on Wednesday said Meli\u00e1’s decision was based on “a sense of corporate responsibility and external factors that have significantly affected the operation, legality and security of these establishments.”<\/p>\n
The decision was announced May 26, just weeks after U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order expanding sanctions against the island. Most of the sanctions targeted Grupo de Administraci\u00f3n Empresarial S.A. (GAESA), a business conglomerate operated by the Cuban Revolutionary Armed Forces. The U.S. says GAESA is a threat to its national security. <\/p>\n
A classic car drives on a road in Havana on Tuesday, with the U.S. Embassy in the Cuban capital seen in the background. (Adalberto Roque\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
The executive order freezes the assets of foreign companies, seizes their accounts in the United States and prohibits travel by their shareholders, investors and employees \u2014 virtually eliminating their activity in the U.S. financial system.<\/p>\n
GAESA, a Cuban conglomerate created in the 1990s, owns a wide range of businesses, from car rentals and retail stores to transportation companies. It is Meli\u00e1’s partner in hotel management through one of its subsidiaries, Gaviota.<\/p>\n
Meli\u00e1 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.<\/p>\n
Latest blow for tourism sector<\/p>\n
The hotel chain is one of Cuba’s most important partners in its vital tourism sector. Until its partial withdrawal, it operated about 14,000 rooms.<\/p>\n
Spanish and Canadian firms are the biggest investors in Cuba’s hotel sector, said Lee Schlenker, a research associate at the Quincy Institute’s Global South program, a Washington think-tank.<\/p>\n
“With the lack of international tourism, the fuel shortages, and just the broader decline since COVID \u2026 I’m sure that these companies will be rethinking their operations in Cuba with major implications for the people of Cuba, not just GAESA,” he said. “There are thousands of Cubans who work in these hotels.”<\/p>\n
LISTEN | Guy Lewis says it’s ‘very possible’ Ra\u00fal Castro will be brought to U.S.:<\/p>\n
As It Happens6:51Former Florida U.S. attorney ‘very pleased’ by Ra\u00fal Castro indictment<\/p>\n
Federal prosecutors on Wednesday announced criminal charges against former Cuban president Ra\u00fal Castro in the 1996 downing of civilian planes flown by Miami-based exiles. Guy Lewis was the U.S. attorney for the southern district of Florida when the shoot-down took place. He spoke to As It Happens host Nil K\u00f6ksal.<\/p>\n
Several of the hotels that Meli\u00e1 abandoned in idyllic destinations like the resorts of Varadero, Cayo Santa Mar\u00eda and Jardines del Rey “were already closed and inactive due to energy problems and the drop in demand in Cuba,” according to Cubadebate. <\/p>\n
Cuba’s government has blamed the U.S. energy blockade for prolonged blackouts, water shortages, supply problems, deficiencies in the health-care system and disruptions to daily life.<\/p>\n
‘It’s going to affect us’<\/p>\n
Those who work in Cuba’s crumbling tourism sector lamented Meli\u00e1’s announcement.<\/p>\n
“It’s going to affect us, our families, and everyone involved in tourism. Our pay and income depend on this,” said Erich L\u00f3pez, a driver of a green 1950s Dodge who has been driving for two decades to support his family.<\/p>\n
![\"People](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/1780547712_571_default.jpg\")
People haul water containers along a street in Havana on Wednesday. (Ramon Espinosa\/The Associated Press)<\/p>\n
For Carlos Luis Carbonel, a 62-year-old parking attendant who works in front of the giant Meli\u00e1 Cohiba hotel in Havana, the situation “is going to be a blow.”<\/p>\n
“This is terrible for everyone: for tour guides, for parking attendants, for hotel workers, for everyone,” he said.<\/p>\n
Other major hotel chains, including Canadian-owned Royalton and Spain’s Iberostar, have limited or suspended operations in Cuba in the past week.<\/p>\n
Tourism in Cuba, which reached a peak of 4.3 million visitors in 2019, saw a significant drop in the number of tourists arriving in the first quarter of this year, 48 per cent lower than in the same period in 2025.<\/p>\n
Only 298,000 tourists arrived in Cuba in January, February and March, compared with 573,300 international visitors during the same period last year, according to government data.<\/p>\n
Cuba struggles to breathe<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, the enormous and iconic sign of the Royalton Paseo del Prado hotel at the entrance of Old Havana was removed, as confirmed by The Associated Press during a visit. Meanwhile, the 500-room Iberostar Selection \u2014 also known as Tower K \u2014 the most modern and luxurious of the hotels slated to open in 2025, standing over 150 metres tall, has remained closed for days. <\/p>\n
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A car is seen driving past the Paseo del Prado Hotel in Havana on Monday. (Adalberto Roque\/AFP\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n
Airlines including World2Fly, Air France and Iberia have cancelled flights to and from Cuba. <\/p>\n
Also on Wednesday, Cuba’s Central Bank announced that Visa and MasterCard operations on the island would be suspended following the termination of relationships between foreign entities and FINCIMEX S.A., a Cuba-based agency affiliated with GAESA.<\/p>\n
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