An employers’ organization says Havana owes more than 350 million euros to some 300 companies.
14ymedio, Havana, 12 June 2025 — Cuba’s financial crisis and its informality in paying its debts have made even its historical partners begin to distrust it. This Thursday, resentful of the defaults to several companies in Catalonia, the employers’ organization Fomento del Trabajo Nacional, which brings together entrepreneurs from that region, denounced the debt of more than 350 million euros (406.5 million dollars) that Cuba has with 300 companies in Spain. Fifteen per cent of them, he says, are in a “critical” financial situation or have had to close down.
Bearing in mind that 40% of the companies with which the island is indebted (some 120 companies), mostly SMEs and micro-enterprises, are Catalan, and that the closure of several of them has led to the disappearance of jobs. The association has been operating since 2023 the Platform of Affected by the Cuban Government’s Defaults, which includes companies from all over the country “damaged” by debt.
Also, they say they has notified the Spanish government of the debt, as well as parliamentary groups, “with the aim of activating mechanisms that allow us to recover the amounts owed and avoid the disappearance of the affected export business network.”
“The outstanding debts are mainly related to export operations, many of them humanitarian in nature”
“The outstanding debts are mainly related to export operations, many of them humanitarian in nature, essential for sectors such as health and food in Cuba,” says Fomento, which regrets that the debts persist “despite the historical commercial relationship between Spain and Cuba, with Spain being one of the main investors in the Island.”
The Island’s private debt with hundreds of Spanish companies has increased from the 336 million dollars last claimed by the then Minister of Industry, Trade and Tourism of Spain, Reyes Maroto, who called for a “gradual” plan for payments during a visit to Havana in 2019.
In November 2024, during a presentation to the Congress of Deputies, the Secretary of State for Economy and Enterprise Support, Israel Arroyo, admitted that Cuba owed another 2 billion euros in debts to multilateral agencies. “It is a difficult problem to solve as long as Cuba cannot pay, because right now the situation is what it is,” said Arroyo with resignation.
The head of the portfolio then explained that most of the debt has a historical origin, which comes from the former Development Assistance Fund, from the 80s and 90s. To try to resolve the situation, three agreements have been signed in recent years with Cuba, the first two in 2015 and 2016, in which there was a restructuring with an extension of the deadlines. In 2021, another agreement was also signed to renegotiate payments, in this case without removing the debt. But the problem with Cuba “is that it cannot pay that debt,” Arroyo insisted.
Cuba’s problem “is that it cannot pay that debt”
In 2015, Cuba signed with the Paris Club the forgiveness of $8.5 billion of the $11.1 billion debt that Havana owed since 1986. Spain, which is part of the group, also negotiated on that occasion the restructuring of the short-term debt for $201 million, most of which was forgiven.
While the small Spanish entrepreneurs are not willing to lose their money, others with less risk of disappearing if business with Cuba falls apart, such as the large hotel companies, continue to invest in Cuban hotels. This is the case of firms such as Meliá, with more than 30 facilities throughout the country, and Iberostar, which recently took over the management of the hotel located in the controversial Torre K hotel project.
The operations of these companies have also not been free from difficulties. With the dramatic drop in the arrival of tourists in recent years, hotels are barely full – Meliá’s occupancy in 2024 was just 40% – and the economic crisis makes supplying hotels with basic products an odyssey. Meliá, for example, had to create its own importer, Mesol, to ensure supplies of all kinds, from food and drink to security measures and maintenance.
The Cuban Government’s eagerness to obtain foreign currency has also hurt foreign entrepreneurs, who last April received with displeasure the news that Cuba would not allow them to repatriate their earnings in foreign currency. To soften the blow to its partners’ finances, the Regime then promised that they could open unlimited hard currency accounts, but their operations would be restricted to the country.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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