Visa, Mastercard Join Exodus From Cuba on Expanded US Sanctions

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(Bloomberg) — Lea en español

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Cuban revolutionary leader Raúl Castro got some unwelcome news for his 95th birthday on Wednesday: more corporations abandoning the Caribbean country under US pressure. 

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Visa Inc. and Mastercard Inc. transactions will be suspended on the island as of the end of this week due to President Donald Trump’s latest sanctions, the central bank said in a statement carried by state media.   

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Earlier, Meliá Hotels International SA announced that it’s pulling its brands and “immediately” terminating its operating agreements at 15 hotels. 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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Trump’s administration has been ratcheting up 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 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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Cuba tied its decision to suspend credit card transactions directly to US sanctions unveiled last month that allow Washington to target almost any foreign individual or company that does business on the island. The new measures 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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The foreign financial institution that processed Visa and Mastercard transactions for Cuba said on Tuesday it was terminating its relationship with Financiera Cimex SA, Gaesa’s banking arm, according to the central bank. Cash, domestic prepaid cards, Mir and UnionPay cards will remain available for foreign-currency transactions, it added. 

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The Trump administration had signaled that foreign companies had until Friday to unwind operations with the military conglomerate or face scrutiny by the US Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control.

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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.