Spanish hotel chain Meliá ceases operations in Cuba due to US sanctions
Spanish hotel group Meliá is halting all operations in Cuba, citing inability to maintain stability under growing pressure from US sanctions. The company aims to ensure a smooth transition to minimize impact on employees, suppliers, and guests.
The Spanish hotel chain Meliá has announced it will cease all operations in Cuba by the end of the week, citing “major difficulties” in doing business under escalating pressure from Washington.
In a statement to the Spanish stock market regulator on Tuesday, Meliá explained that the latest US sanctions make it “impossible, de facto and de jure, to maintain even minimal operational stability.” The company said it would work to ensure a smooth transition to reduce the impact on staff, suppliers, and clients as much as possible.
Last month, Meliá announced it would stop operating 15 of its 34 hotels in Cuba, joining other foreign companies that have severed ties with the island’s military conglomerate, GAESA, under pressure from Washington. Meliá, one of the largest foreign hotel operators in Cuba with 14,000 rooms, did not mention the other 19 hotels it runs in partnership with Cuba’s tourism ministry in that statement.
US President Donald Trump ordered new sanctions in May against Cuba, targeting a broad set of individuals and threatening foreign banks and companies that work with them. Meliá was the first Spanish hotel group to establish a presence in Cuba after the Caribbean nation opened its tourism sector to foreigners in the 1990s, seeking to ease the economic crisis triggered by the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In addition to an economic embargo in place since 1962, Washington has blocked all oil shipments to the island since January, with the exception of a single Russian vessel.
