LIMA, Peru – Around 180 Spanish companies with a presence in Cuba would have gone bankrupt due to non-payments by the Cuban regime, according to a report from the Spanish Commercial Office in Havana cited by the newspaper The Country.
The report estimates the debt accumulated with Spanish companies at around 300 million euros, of which 256 million correspond to pending payments and another 74 million to dividends and retained funds that cannot be transferred outside the island.
The office warned that the report is incomplete, since only 182 of the 930 Spanish companies present in Cuba provided information, suggesting that the real debt could be higher. Among the companies that did not respond, it is estimated that around 180 have already gone bankrupt as a direct consequence of non-payments.
According to the available statistics, 19% of the companies consulted affirm that what Havana owes exceeds its annual turnover, mainly affecting small and medium-sized companies linked to tourism and commerce.
In this context, Spanish businessmen propose using debt conversion programs of the Government of Spain to compensate creditors and transform liabilities into productive investment. Madrid announced last year a debt relief plan with Cuba for up to 375 million euros for projects in sectors such as energy, water and food security.
This same week the topic was addressed in Madrid during a meeting between the Cuban Foreign Minister, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla, and the Spanish Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation, José Manuel Albares, who discussed, among other issues, the situation of Spanish companies on the Island.
Castroism seeks support in Spain
During the meeting, Albares promised to send humanitarian aid to Cuba consisting of food and “essential health products,” according to reports. EFE.
Both officials met last Monday at the request of the senior Cuban official. According to the Spanish news agency, the meeting also included a review of the “commitment” of the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) with the Island.
EFE did not refer to volumes, delivery times, logistical channels or the amount of aid announced.
The meeting took place while Cuba is going through the most serious crisis in at least the last 70 years. The panorama in the largest of the Antilles is marked by the inefficiency of the centralized economic system and the sanctions of the United States.
According to EFE, Albares and Rodríguez also addressed the objectives of the Spanish Pro Tempore Secretariat for the next Ibero-American Summit, scheduled for November 4 and 5 in Madrid.
Just upon his arrival at the headquarters of the Spanish Foreign Ministry, Rodríguez Parrilla He was rebuked by a group of Cubans who called him “brazen” and “disgraceful” and shouted “Freedom for political prisoners!”, “Down with communism!” and “Down with the dictatorship!”, among other slogans.
The chancellor of the Cuban regime had not visited Spain since April 2017. This is the third meeting between Albares and Rodríguez Parrilla: the first occurred in 2021, on the occasion of the Ibero-American Summit in the Dominican Republic, and the second in September 2025, during the UN General Assembly in New York.
