Iberostar confirmed on Tuesday that it has ceased operations and marketing for 12 of its 18 hotels in Cuba since June 1, in direct response to the sanctions imposed by the Trump administration against the Business Administration Group S.A. (GAESA), the military conglomerate that controls a significant portion of the Cuban economy.
The decision was first communicated to the Argentine tour operator Sudameria on Monday night, and officially confirmed by the company to EFE this Tuesday around 2:00 PM.
Sources from the company described the situation in Cuba as "critical and complex" and justified the measure as "a process of adaptation to the international regulatory environment."
The 12 affected establishments belong to Gaviota, the hotel subsidiary of GAESA, and are: Iberostar Grand Packard, Iberostar Selection Ensenachos, Iberostar Coral Ensenachos, Iberostar Selection Holguín, Iberostar Coral Holguín, Iberostar Selection Esmeralda, Iberostar Coral Esmeralda, Iberostar Selection La Habana, Iberostar Origin Bella Vista Varadero, Iberostar Origin Laguna Azul, Iberostar Origin Playa Pilar, and Iberostar Origin Playa Alameda.
The remaining six hotels—affiliated with Cubanacán and Gran Caribe, tourist groups of the Cuban government not belonging to GAESA—will continue to operate under the Iberostar brand.
Among the abandoned hotels is the Iberostar Selection La Habana, the tallest hotel building in Cuba with 42 floors, inaugurated in March 2025 with a state investment of 200 million dollars.
The pressure that triggered the decision has a name and date: the Executive Order 14404 signed by Trump on May 1, 2026, which included secondary sanctions for foreign companies with economic ties to GAESA and its subsidiaries, with June 5 set as the deadline to sever those connections.
The State Department described GAESA as "the core of Cuba's kleptocratic communist system" and accused it of diverting up to $20 billion in illicit assets to hidden bank accounts abroad.
The departure of Iberostar, present in Cuba since 1993 and the second largest foreign hotel chain by number of assets on the island, occurs just days after the Canadian company Blue Diamond also confirmed its definitive withdrawal last Friday, with 62 hotels and more than 12,900 rooms.
The exodus from the international hotel sector increases the pressure on Meliá Hotels International, the Spanish chain with the largest presence in Cuba. It manages approximately 35 hotels with around 14,000 rooms, which accounts for 14% of its global portfolio.
Meliá has not officially commented, although by the first quarter of 2026, half of its hotels on the island were already closed due to lack of demand, with an average occupancy of 34.1% and a 68% drop in net profit.
In 2024, Meliá's Cuban operations incurred losses of four million euros, compared to the company's overall profit of 267 million.
The collapse of tourism in Cuba is due to a combination of factors: chronic power outages, shortages of food and fuel, and the loss of air connectivity after running out of Jet A-1 fuel. In March 2026, the island received only 35,561 visitors, with an estimated impact of 300,000 workers in the sector without stable employment.
The regime responded this Tuesday with an article in the official newspaper Granma titled "Cuba, the GAE and the United States: Anatomy of a State Slander," in which it accused Washington of "escalation" without mentioning the June 5 deadline or providing audit figures on GAESA.
Meliá warned in May that "as long as uncertainty persists, the evolution of the tourism business in the region will depend on the development of events and the eventual recovery of supplies and normalcy."
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