MIAMI, United States. — On November 27, 1957, the Hotel Capri was inaugurated in Havana, one of the most representative facilities of its kind in the capital.
El Capri is the result of an investor opening process initiated in 1955 by the dictator Fulgencio Batistawho that year enacted Hotel Law 2074.
It was a measure that offered tax incentives, government loans and casino licenses to anyone who wanted to build hotels in Havana for more than $1,000,000 or nightclubs for $200,000.
The regulations brought the notorious mobster Meyer Lansky and several of his associates to Cuba, who began to flood the city with hotels and casinos.
In this sense, the Capri was one of the first hotels built in Havana whose property was in the hands of gangsters, in this case the American Santo Trafficante Jr., who handed over the administration of the property to Nicholas Di Costanzo, to gangster Charles Turin and to Santino Masselli.
Originally it had nineteen floors and 250 rooms, which made it one of the largest hotels/casinos in the Cuban capital.
The Hotel Capri was nationalized by the Fidel Castro regime in October 1960 and the casino was closed by express order of the boss.
In the 1990s, it became known as the Hotel Horizontes Capri.
The facility closed in 2003 and reopened in January 2014 after major renovations. Then, it came to be managed by the Spanish hotel group NH.
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