Meliá Joins Corporate Exodus From Cuba as Raúl Castro Turns 95

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(Bloomberg) — Cuban revolutionary leader Raúl Castro got some unwelcome news for his 95th birthday on Wednesday: another corporate ally abandoning the Caribbean country under US pressure. 

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Meliá Hotels International SA, which operates 15 properties in Cuba, announced that it’s pulling its brands and “immediately” terminating its operating agreements. While the Spanish company didn’t cite US sanctions specifically, it said the decision was due to Cuba’s “geopolitical, social, legal and economic context.” 

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The company isn’t alone. On Monday, Royalton Hotels & Resorts Ltd. said it was shutting its Cuban subsidiary, while Iberostar Group also quit operating a dozen hotels in Cuba, according to multiple reports.

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President Donald Trump’s administration has been ratcheting up US pressure on Havana since the start of the year, cutting off its supply of Venezuelan oil and threatening tariffs on any other country that sent fuel to Cuba. Several major airlines suspended service after being told they couldn’t refuel on the island, and countries such as Canada and the UK have warned their citizens to avoid unnecessary travel.

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Tourism, once one of the backbones of the Cuban economy, has been gutted. International travel to the island hit a two-decade low last year and is on track to perform even worse in 2026. From January through April, the island received 328,600 visitors, down 56% versus the same period last year, according to Cuba’s statistics agency.

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Meliá said Wednesday’s announcement would have a limited impact on its bottom line because many of the hotels were already shuttered “due to the energy challenges and the decline in demand.”

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The latest round of closures appear to be tied to US sanctions unveiled last month that allow Washington to target almost any non-US individual or company that does business on the island. The new sanctions singled out Grupo de Administración Empresarial SA, the conglomerate known as Gaesa that’s run by Cuba’s military and dominates much of the island’s economy, including the tourism sector.

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“With this latest round of secondary sanctions targeting Gaesa, the Trump administration has found the right formula to push foreign hotel chains against a wall with no real viable alternative,” Paolo Spadoni, a professor at Augusta University in Georgia who studies the island’s economy, said by text message.

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The sanctions have also hit the mining industry. They threw Sherritt International Corp. into turmoil, prompting the Canadian nickel producer to cut its long-running ties with the Cuban government and partner instead with a former adviser to Trump. 

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For Castro — who led the 1959 communist revolution with his late brother Fidel and remains one of Cuba’s most powerful figures — the corporate exodus only adds to the pressure.