CUBA-SPAIN: Mute Over Crisis, Spanish Businessmen Continue to Trade

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Nov 28 1996 (IPS) - The silence syndrome, a well-known ailment afflicting Cuban officials, has spread to most of the Spanish business community here as the diplomatic crisis between Havana and Madrid intensifies.

“I am not authorised to comment,” is the general reaction from people in the sector – though, given what they have to lose, businessmen should be the most interested in the state of play of relations between Cuba and Spain.

Executives from the Spanish Sol-Melia, Trip Hotels and the joint venture Tabacalera S.A. consulted by IPS refused to comment “on politics” or delayed their response until “later” or at least “next week.”

The conflict deepened Tuesday when Cuba’s foreign ministry announced its withdrawal of support for the new Spanish ambassador in Havana, Jose Coderech, saying he had an improper attitude for a diplomat.

Cuba cited public declarations made by Coderch regarding his position on policy towards the island, and the extent to which these echoed the view of Conservative prime minister Jose Maria Aznar. These views were “absurd and meddling”, the government said.

Tension accelerated further when groups of Cuban citizens gathered around the Spanish embassy in Havana with clear intention of forcing entry in order to get visas.

Marainela Ferreol, the foreign ministry spokeswoman, pleaded with Spanish entrepreneurs with interests on the island to be “calm and confident”. She assured that Cuba was not about to freeze bilateral relations.

Spain is one of Cuba’s main trading partners, with trade valued at 400 million dollars in 1995, up 45 percent over the previous year.

Cuba’s foreign trade minister, Ricardo Cabrisas, said that until midway through this year 80 economic associations had been formed between companies in the two countries, and 111 of the 600 accredited foreign firms on the island were Spanish.

“The trade figures for 1996 are still growing,” said Juan Arenas, president of the Spanish part of the Bilateral Committee of Spain-Cuba Economic Cooperation, which held its sixth session last June.

Tabacalera S.A., a Cuban-Spanish joint venture which markets the famous Havana cigars, aims to close 1996 with an export total of 70 million cigars, and has plans to keep growing until it satisfies the world demand for 120 million.

Official figures show Spain is the major foreign investor in Cuba, with interest in several sectors of the economy including tourism, tobacco, real estate and light industry.

Spain was one of the three countries which participated in the First International Fair in Havana, the most important trade forum and pioneer of foreign investments here.

Sol Melia, the most powerful of the Spanish companies operating here, started business in 1990 with the Sol Palmeras hotel in the resort of Varadero, 140 km from Havana, and it will have six hotels opened there by the end of the year.

With more than 200 hotels in 25 countries, Sol Melia has investments of 50 million dollars in Cuba, offering 4,500 beds, a capacity it hopes to increase next year when the Hotel Melia Habana opens in the capital.

The Spanish firm, an associate of Cubanacan S.A, performed the novelty act of the high season in Cuba this month with the first Caribbean voyage of the Melia Don Juan Cruise ship, which set out from Cienfuegos, 336 km from Havana.

“We are professionals and wherever there is business we develop as a company,” said Gabriel Canaves, director of the Cuba Division of Sol Melia, explaining the threat the US Helms-Burton law meant to the company in its aim to stop foreign investment on the island.

The company is in charge of two hotels in southern Florida – the Sol Miami Beach and the Sol Orlando – which according to Canaves will be abandonned if US pressure is kept up.

A meeting of the Business Association of Spanish Travel Agencies, held in Havana from Nov. 21 to 23, defined Cuba as the favourite tourist destination of Spaniards in the Caribbean.

Meanwhile, the Spanish airline Iberia decided in May to make weekly flights to Cuba in order to meet the demand from tourists, entrepreneurs and support delegations who fly back and forth from Havana.

Sources in the Cuban Ministry of Tourism said in the first 10 months of this year 95,074 Spanish tourists came to the island, an increase of 31.2 percent in relation to the same period of the previous year, becoming the third largest visiting nationality.

Tourism is one of the most important sources of income for the Caribbean island, providing the bulk of the market for Cuban products like havana cigars and rum.

Although the Cuban authorities insist the signs of economic recovery, following a period of crisis earlier this decade, are mainly due to internal efforts, local experts said “nothing would have been possible” without the boost from foreign investment.