Delcos Marine, linked to a Spanish company, offers products for maritime activities, a sector closely monitored by the regime.
14ymedio, Natalia López Moya, Havana, October 22, 2026 – Alongside the Iron Bridge over the Almendares River, at the boundary separating Havana’s El Vedado and Miramar neighborhoods, several men have been working for weeks to renovate an industrial warehouse. This is the location Delcos Marine has chosen to open its first nautical store in Cuba, a country surrounded by water where all maritime activities are considered matters of national security.
What was once an abandoned, shabby warehouse is now a freshly painted light-blue building, equipped with several solar panels and decorated with eye-catching advertising signs: a smiling woman splashing in the sea, a man on a paddleboard, a hand holding an immaculate fishing rod, two divers in full gear, and the railing of a boat, all set against crystal-clear waters.
The opening of a private business on the Island is not news, but Delcos Marine’s specialty is an event in itself: it offers “everything for sailing, fishing, diving, or simply enjoying a great day at the beach” in a country where sailing, fishing, and diving are subject to strict controls. On its website, which still lists neither prices nor sales, Delcos Marine features several sections offering every type of sea-related product, from water sports equipment to marine hardware and recreational items. Rods, hooks, fishing line, snorkeling equipment, swimsuits, wetsuits, masks, fins, and outboard motor spare parts are among the items on the list, at least on paper.
“Your next catch starts here” is the slogan the store uses on its social media accounts to announce its upcoming opening, which, nevertheless, has yet to take place. The store’s Facebook account has been active for almost three years, and the first post introducing it as a “nautical marketplace” is dated April 15, 2024.
The official website does not provide the full name of any owner, but it does state that “Delcosmarine® is a registered trademark of Redelcos,” and that the company has offices in both Havana — at the Palco Hotel, adjacent to the Convention Palace managed by that state-owned company belonging to the Gaesa military conglomerate — and Barcelona. Calls to the telephone number in the Cuban capital go unanswered, while the number in the Spanish city belongs to a shared office, Vivendi Business Center, where the same receptionist handles all the companies based there. An employee said she would pass the message to “someone in marketing” to answer this newspaper’s questions, but so far no response has been received.
Redelcos describes itself as a business group dedicated to exports and imports, and its website makes clear that, although it talks about “selling in the Caribbean,” its main relationship is with Cuba. This is even clearer in its catalog, where the company describes itself as “specialists in the export of automotive products” and claims to have “official distribution in Cuba for top-quality brands.”
The company does not appear on the Ministry of Economy and Planning’s list of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises, but it claims to have had “a stable presence and a legal structure registered with the Cuban Chamber of Commerce since 2015.”
The Spanish commercial registry, however, lists the company as Representaciones Delcos S.L. and indicates that it was founded in April 2023 by a sole shareholder, Gloria Cosano Mendoza. In February 2024, Santiago del Río Reyes was appointed as a joint attorney-in-fact, and a few months later the company ceased to be a sole-shareholder company after new partners joined, although their names are not specified in the Official Gazette of the Commercial Registry.
In June 2024, a new joint attorney-in-fact was appointed — Sonia Merino Hernández, an executive who holds positions at three other companies — but the most significant development occurred last May, when Redelcos changed its corporate purpose. It then expanded its activities to include the “purchase and sale, distribution, import, export, storage, and marketing of hydrocarbons, petroleum derivatives, biofuels, and energy products.” For months, this newspaper has been documenting the phenomenon of private companies involved in all kinds of businesses that have jumped en masse into the business of importing gasoline from the United States, something permitted since February of this year, even though their original activities had nothing to do with it.
Redelcos does not mention this issue, however, as its newest venture is Delcos Marine. The portfolio states that the 400-square-meter space will offer an online service designed “for Cubans living abroad: they can buy from anywhere in the world, and their family members can pick up the order at our store in Havana.”
The company also promotes the following message: “Cuba is an island with thousands of kilometers of coastline, a culture tied to the sea, and a growing recreational boating, fishing, and maritime tourism sector. And yet it is a market where the supply of specialized nautical products remains underdeveloped.”
The website makes no mention of the restrictions the regime imposes on all these activities on the Island. The government prohibits people from going to sea beyond territorial limits and imposes permits, controls, and restrictions on both fishing and scuba diving.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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