Cuba: Building Materials for Hotels not Hurricane Victims
Authorities reprimand state media outlets that show interest in the module factory: “Forget about that plant.”
HAVANA TIMES – The Cuban Government continues to blame the US embargo (they call the blockade*) for the lack of construction materials. In the midst of a new crisis caused by Hurricane Melissa, which left more than 76,000 homes affected in the east of the country, a huge factory is dedicated exclusively and very discreetly to the production of modules for a hotel complex in Holguin.
Details about the operation of the Antilla Modular Plant were revealed by photographer Juan Pablo Contreras, who stated in a Facebook post that authorities had prohibited state media from investigating the specifics of this gigantic facility, located in an isolated area. “Forget about that plant. In fact, it doesn’t exist. It was never built,” they were told bluntly. They only learned of its enormous capacity thanks to a video published by Bouygues Bâtiment International, the French company involved in the construction of numerous luxury hotels on the island, including the Iberostar La Habana, the Torre K and the Grand Packard.
Journalist Abdiel Bermudez, an Holguín news anchor, commented on Contreras’s post: “This is how things are, as if there were something hidden between heaven and earth, and as if censorship were global. Shameful, once again.”
In the video posted by Bouygues, it’s clear that the factory not only exists and is fully operational, but that its size is also considerable. Alden Angulo Roque, deputy director of the Ramón de Antilla industrial park, emphasizes in the video that it “defines the future of construction in Cuba.”
Located on the Ramón de Antilla peninsula, the factory manufactures fully equipped luxury hotel rooms, which are then transported by large trucks to the emerging tourist destination. The facility covers just over nine hectares, with two covered workshops—each 300 linear meters long—dedicated to the structures and finishes. According to Maylín Garcia Ramirez, the plant’s deputy director, the warehouse has a capacity of 6,300 cubic meters. The 448 workers at the factory produce 70 complete modules per month, including electrical and plumbing installations, and deliver them ready for occupancy.
One of the projects benefiting from this is Baracutey, where 576 of the hotel’s 640 rooms will be modular. Its managers maintain that this approach saves six months in the project’s completion.
Some engineers have proposed repurposing that industrial infrastructure precisely to help those affected by the disaster. Yulieta Hernandez Diaz, for example, maintains that the island has “recovery in its own hands,” if internal production mechanisms are activated, bureaucratic procedures are eliminated, and the modular technology already in place is implemented. The engineer adds on her Facebook page: “The plant is located in the affected area. If hotel construction is truly going to be halted and investment is going to be made in the country’s development, this plant can produce all the necessary components. There’s no need to import. There’s no need to wait. There is a need to decide.”
Designer William Sosa also proposed a project called “Raiz Viva” for the construction of housing modules that, according to his calculations, would cost only 10% of the price of a hotel room. His proposal would also avoid some of “our construction problems,” such as the “misappropriation of resources.” Interestingly, just a few days after publishing his proposal, his son wrote on social media that the designer had been arrested for “disobedience,” although he clarified that his father’s only crime was expressing his opinions online.
The question many are asking themselves in light of the disaster caused by Melissa is: why in a country like Cuba, where supposedly political decisions take precedence over commercial interests, was the modular plant in Antilla not directed towards the immediate manufacture of housing for the victims?
The question becomes even more relevant considering the drastic drop in the number of tourists visiting the island. Data from the first half of 2025 reveals that only 981,856 visitors were registered nationwide, 25% fewer than those who arrived during the same period last year. Given this situation, the most logical course of action would be to halt the construction of hotels that, ultimately, remain empty.
However, the logic of those who make decisions in Cuba does not seem to align with the needs of the citizens, despite the recommendations of several prestigious economists. Meanwhile, the government continues to blame the US “blockade” as the main cause of the country’s dramatic situation and the difficulties in assisting hurricane victims.
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* Translator’s note: There is, in fact, no US ‘blockade’ on Cuba, but this continues to be the term the Cuban government prefers to apply to the ongoing US embargo. During the Cuban Missile Crisis the US ordered a Naval blockade (which it called a ‘quarantine’) on Cuba in 1962, between 22 October and 20 November of that year. The blockade was lifted when Russia agreed to remove its nuclear missiles from the Island. The embargo had been imposed earlier in February of the same year, and although modified from time to time, it is still in force.
Translated by Translating Cuba.