What was once one of the busiest and most well-stocked shopping centers in Havana now presents a radically different image: a video recorded this week shows Plaza Carlos III almost empty, with stores and shelves devoid of merchandise—even in dollars and MLC—with just a few customers wandering through its desolate aisles.
The images, shared on Facebook by the user Liena Lopez Delgado, brutally contrast with the past of the place: for years it was the main shopping center in the Cuban capital, with departments for appliances, clothing, household items, and food that attracted thousands of families every weekend.
"Look at the calotecero nowadays. Completely empty. This is no longer the calotecero it used to be. They used to sell chicken, they sold everything," laments Delgado as he walks through the establishment's floors.
In another part of the journey, the author summarizes what she sees with a phrase that says it all: "The hallways, two or three cats. Those who know that this place was once bustling recognize that it used to have everything. These hallways were filled with things. Everything, everything. Empty, empty, empty, empty. Every day, we are regressing."
The deterioration of Carlos III is not sudden. As early as February 2025, reports indicated lines to buy eggs at 1,800 Cuban pesos per box, and in March of that year, a visitor described closed stores, poor lighting, and sealed-off sections.
By October 2025, the center was already being described as empty and silent, with a significant drop in attendance and limited product offerings.
In January 2026, the Cuban actor Ray Cruz posted a video on Instagram lamenting the state of the place where he grew up, which he described as “empty, with four children on two machines”.
In April 2026, Cubans who remembered the splendor of the place could only say "it was a wonder" when comparing it to its current state.
The collapse of Carlos III reflects the failure of the MLC store model that the Cuban regime established in July 2020 to attract foreign currency.
As that system collapsed, the government expanded a parallel network of at least 85 establishments that operate exclusively in U.S. dollars, leaving the MLC stores —like Carlos III— without enough products to attract customers.
On February 5, 2026, the Havana government regulated purchases by municipality and assigned the Carlos III exclusively to residents of Centro Habana, further reducing its foot traffic.
The backdrop is a food crisis of alarming proportions: 33.9% of Cubans went to bed without dinner in 2025 and 94.9% lost some degree of access to purchasing food, according to a survey cited this month.
The Carlos III was reopened on October 17, 1997, by the CIMEX Corporation after a thorough renovation; the original building dates back to the mid-1950s and was introduced as one of the first shopping centers in Latin America.
Almost three decades after that reopening, the video by Liena Lopez Delgado —which garnered over 121,000 views in just a few days— becomes the most recent portrait of an establishment that, like much of Cuban commerce, is moving relentlessly towards total abandonment.
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