Saudi Arabia will allocate 9.3 million dollars to build a mosque in Havana at a time when Cuba is experiencing its worst energy crisis in decades, without the Gulf money resulting in a single barrel of oil for the island.
This was revealed by an investigation conducted by journalist Darío Hernández published in 14ymedio, which confirmed the recent enclosure of the land where the complex will be built.
The chosen site is that of the old Tallapiedra thermoelectric plant in Old Havana, a facility that is no longer in operation, whose inactive chimneys will one day stand in contrast to the minarets of the so-called King Salman Mosque.
The complex will include prayer rooms for around 500 people, a public library, a cafeteria, green areas, and community halls. The design is handled by Restaura, a specialized entity from the Office of the Historian of Havana, while the construction is carried out by Engimov Caribe, a company with 100% Portuguese capital based in the Mariel Special Development Zone.
The financing comes from the Saudi Fund for Development, although the formal investor is the Office of the Historian itself, which manages the funds. The construction permit dates back to 2020, but the project has accumulated nearly a decade of announcements without even having laid the foundations at this point.
The contrast is hard to ignore: Cuba needs between 90,000 and 110,000 barrels of oil daily to sustain its electrical system, but it produces only about 40,000. So far in 2026, the country has experienced at least eight total collapses of the National Electric System, with deficits exceeding 2,000 megawatts and blackouts lasting over 24 hours daily in some areas. Saudi money is coming in, but not in the form of fuel.
The relations between Cuba and Saudi Arabia date back to 1956. The Saudi Fund for Development has financed a total of seven projects on the island—in health, sanitation, and infrastructure—worth approximately 193.3 million dollars.
However, as revealed to 14ymedio by a source from the Office of the Historian, part of a loan of 26.6 million dollars originally intended for housing was diverted to the Fidel Castro Ruz Center in El Vedado and to the Capitol. "It is supposed that the credit was for housing, but they took a portion for the Center and for the Capitol as well," said that source.
The project has a tangled history. In 2014, it was Turkey that proposed to finance a mosque in Havana, driven by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who even invoked a supposed pre-Columbian Islamic presence on the island: "Columbus recounts that there was a mosque on a hill along the coasts of Cuba. I will talk to my brothers in Cuba about how appropriate it would be to build a mosque on top of that hill."
The Cuban regime initially rejected the proposal, then accepted it, but the Turkish plan never materialized. In 2016, the funding was transferred to Saudi hands, and there was talk of a complex capable of accommodating up to 10,000 believers, which would have been the largest in Latin America.
The Muslim community in Cuba is small and has a relatively recent organization. Although there are historical references to Muslim African slaves and to Arab immigrants—Lebanese, Syrians, Palestinians—from the late 19th century, the organized practice of Islam primarily grew from the 1990s, fueled by the religious openness that followed the Special Period.
The Islamic League of Cuba was legally recognized in 2007, and it is estimated that the community does not exceed 5,000 followers across the island. Its only formal place of worship in the capital is the Abdallah Mosque, located on Oficios Street. Believers face additional challenges in obtaining halal products and celebrating festivals such as Ramadan or Eid in an environment of widespread scarcity.
The Cuban ambassador in Riyadh, Vladimir González, described that community in 2022 as "a small Muslim community in the country; very organized," and added that he felt "honored to make their lives as Muslims in Cuba easier."
For those several thousand faithful, the King Salman Mosque —which in September 2026 will still not have its foundations laid— would be the first major Islamic complex on the Island.
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