Spanish Hotel Giant Pulls Out of Cuba as US Sanctions Bite

Meliá, one of Spain’s largest hotel chains, is ending all operations in Cuba by the end of this week, blaming mounting pressure from Washington. In a statement to the Spanish stock market regulator, the company cited “major difficulties” doing business on the island, adding that the latest US sanctions have made it “impossible, de facto and de jure, to maintain even minimal operational stability.”

The move follows last month’s announcement that Meliá would stop running 15 of its 34 hotels in Cuba, joining a growing list of foreign firms severing ties with the island’s military conglomerate, GAESA. The chain, which manages 14,000 rooms across Cuba, said it would work to ensure a smooth transition to minimize the impact on employees, suppliers, and guests. Notably, the company did not address the fate of the other 19 hotels it operates in partnership with Cuba’s tourism ministry.

The exodus comes after President Donald Trump imposed new sanctions in May, targeting a wide range of individuals and threatening foreign banks and companies that deal with them. Meliá was the first Spanish hotel group to enter Cuba after the country opened its tourism sector to foreigners in the 1990s, hoping to revive an economy shattered by the fall of the Soviet Union. Beyond the decades-old US embargo, Washington has also blocked all oil shipments to the island since January, except for a single Russian vessel.