A video published on Facebook by the account Mundo Explora by Nai starkly summarizes the most visible contradiction of contemporary Cuba: residential buildings crumbling while the regime allocates resources to erect luxury hotels for tourists, who are also arriving in decreasing numbers.
"Many buildings are collapsing, and ironically, many hotels are under construction. So, the heritage of Havana is crumbling before our eyes. Havana is dying. And we continue selling mojitos, daiquiris, coffee, rum, and women," says the narrator, capturing in a few words decades of state neglect.
The figures behind that complaint are devastating. According to official data cited in April 2026, approximately 1,000 buildings in the Cuban capital collapse each year.
By the end of 2025, Havana recorded 185,348 properties in poor condition, of which 46,158 required major repairs.
Last year, collapses claimed at least six lives in the capital. On July 12, 2025, two collapses in a single day resulted in four deaths: a 60-year-old man in Diez de Octubre and three others in Old Havana, including a seven-year-old girl.
In 2026, the situation does not improve. In February, another section of the old ISDI building in Central Havana collapsed, and in March, the authorities had to demolish what remained of that property after years of progressive deterioration.
Meanwhile, the regime has not stopped building hotels.
In February 2024, the Iberostar Selection La Habana was inaugurated, a 42-story building with 565 rooms, after six years of construction. The hotel capacity in four and five-star categories increased from 41,000 rooms in 2004 to 61,000 in 2024.
The outcome is a complete failure. Cuba received only 2.2 million visitors in 2024, the worst figure since 2007, far from the 4.2 million in 2019. Hotel occupancy fell to 21.5% between January and June of 2025. Empty hotels, neighborhoods in ruins.
Old Havana, declared a World Heritage Site by UNESCO, is one of the epicenters of deterioration. Specialists describe a pattern of systematic abandonment exacerbated by a shortage of construction materials, the energy crisis, and the lack of public investment in housing.
The crisis is affecting the entire country. In 2022, residents of Sancti Spíritus were already warning about the same issue following the collapse of balconies in an emblematic building: "people are left homeless while the government keeps building hotels".
The video description summarizes it with bitterness: "Every week there are more deteriorating buildings, more collapses, and more stories lost among the rubble. A city as beautiful as this deserves so much more."
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