The shipping companies Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM, two of the largest in the world, have informed their representative agencies in Cuba of the implementation of a "STOP BOOKING" —total halt of bookings— for all origins and destinations of their regular services to and from the island, according to an urgent statement exclusively obtained by this medium.
The document, dated May 14, 2026, states: "During the early hours of yesterday, we received official communication from the Representation Agencies in Cuba of the shipping companies Hapag-Lloyd and CMA CGM, notifying us of the implementation of a STOP BOOKING for all origins and destinations of their regular services to and from Cuba."
Several independent sources confirmed the authenticity of the statement and specified that the measure goes beyond these two companies: all shipping companies have paused and rescheduled their shipments to Cuba, both maritime and air.
The suspension would be temporary and would respond to the need to restructure contracts to eliminate GAESA as a counterparty, following the sanctions imposed by Washington on the Cuban military conglomerate.
The direct trigger was the sanctions package announced on May 7 by Secretary of State Marco Rubio under Executive Order 14404, signed by President Donald Trump on May 1.
The sanctions designate GAESA —the Business Administration Group S.A., a conglomerate controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces— as a blocked entity, freezing all its assets under U.S. jurisdiction and prohibiting any transactions with U.S. individuals or companies.
Crucially, the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) granted foreign companies and financial institutions a deadline until June 5, 2026 to close all their operations with GAESA and its subsidiaries, under threat of secondary sanctions.
The problem for shipping companies is structural: GAESA controls approximately 40% or more of the Cuban economy, including ports, maritime terminals, and the Mariel Special Development Zone through its subsidiary AUSA.
This means that practically any business operation on the island involves some contractual link with the conglomerate, making it extremely difficult to operate in Cuba without incurring the risk of sanctions.
The State Department described GAESA as "the core of Cuba's kleptocratic communist system" and accused the conglomerate of managing revenues that "likely triple the Cuban state budget," in addition to controlling up to 20 billion dollars in illicit assets abroad.
The executive president of GAESA, Ania Guillermina Lastres Morera, a brigadier general of the FAR, was personally sanctioned on May 7.
The maritime standstill adds to a wave of corporate withdrawals. The Canadian mining company Sherritt International suspended all of its direct operations in Cuba on the same day, claiming that the executive order makes it "materially impossible" to maintain normal operations, further exacerbating the already critical energy crisis in a country where blackouts affect more than 55% of the territory for up to 25 hours daily.
Since January 2026, the Trump administration has imposed over 240 sanctions against the Cuban regime and intercepted at least seven oil tankers, reducing the island's energy imports by between 80% and 90%.
Rubio warned in his statement on May 7 that "new sanctions are expected in the coming days and weeks," a sign that pressure on the regime and its international trading partners has not yet reached its peak.
Filed under: