“The Entire Habana Libre Hotel is Falling Apart”
In the past, entering the Commercial Gallery of the hotel, located at the central corner of 23rd and L streets in El Vedado, was a privilege.
HAVANA TIMES – Just a few meters from the controversial K Tower, about to be inaugurated as a luxury hotel after a multi-million-dollar investment, the historic Habana Libre shows signs of its continued decline.
In the past, entering the Commercial Gallery of the hotel, located at the central corner of 23rd and L streets in El Vedado, was a privilege. Famous brand boutiques, bright lighting, polished floors. The current reality is very different. Old products, little variety, dark stores, or outright closed ones, like the shop of the Italian brand Fariani, which is no longer operational. Customers must navigate around buckets and cardboard placed on the floor to catch leaks. The false ceiling has collapsed in several spots, exposing pipes and electrical wiring.
Where one of the island’s best-stocked international pharmacies once stood, now there is only a shop with a few products and a faint smell of mildew. Those days when mothers traveled from the provinces to buy Scott’s Emulsion, rich in cod liver oil, for their young children in convertible pesos or dollars seem like a distant past. Families once found adult diapers, broad-spectrum antibiotics, and painkillers there.
The security guards in their immaculate long-sleeve white shirts, who used to patrol the entrance and the gallery’s interior, have also disappeared—not to mention the hundreds of onlookers who strolled through its hallways daily, more to admire the exclusive clothing displayed in the windows than to actually buy something. There were even those who entered through the door on 25th Street, walked through the well-stocked stores, and then continued the route through shops accessed via L Street, where rum, perfumes, or Cuban coffee packets were sold.
“The place is falling apart, the whole hotel,” says a worker anonymously to 14ymedio. “It’s been like that for years.” The employee continues: “A Spaniard (Tryp Meliá) runs it, but it’s chaos inside. The workers don’t care about anything; everyone is just looking out for themselves until it can’t go on anymore, and everything falls apart. Look, the store is empty.”
Few guests at the iconic hotel venture into the area of shops; the photos in tourist guides only show the Hotel’s façade. The advertising aimed at attracting travelers still promotes the Habana Libre as a central location, rich in history, and a place where numerous celebrities have stayed. However, the giant of El Vedado is on shaky ground. A quick visit to the shops on the ground floor is enough to question both the cleanliness of its spaces and the safety of its structure.
First published in Spanish by 14ymedio and translated and posted in English by Havana Times.
The Cuban people traded one dictator for another one (Castro). He and his family weren’t starving. It was all about control for him. He never really cared about the people but more interested in lining his own pockets. After 60 plus years it is time to stop the embargo before Russia or China steps in, imagen steps away from the American border!
I was there in 2018 and loved it! The flights were easy to get and direct from western Canada.
Now it takes 16 to 20 hours of travel. The embargo and the politics have ruined a once lovely place.
I don’t understand the USA continuing to penalize Cuba, don’t they realize that if they don’t help them the Russians or Chinese will swoop in and take over. The US will have their main enemies 90 miles from their shores. Forget Greenland, Cuba is more strategic for the security
Lynne, we hope to read your report on your trip. Safe travels
I am going today! I have never met anyone who didn’t LOVE their trips to Cuba. Culture, cars, music. We are going to the Jazz Festival the last couple of days. I hope Arturo Sandoval is there. We are staying in Particulares. going with a British company. My friends all say the Cuban people are so hospitable and kind and very family orientated. Watch “
A Lifetime of Passion” on PBS if you subscribe. Unbiased view from those who stayed and those who left.
Ray,
I was born in Cuba and my parents left the country in 1960. At that time I was 6 years old. So, everything I know about Cuba is because my parents told me and dealing with the cuban community. Now I decided to go Cuba last October 2024 to meet my wife’s family and find out about my roots in Cuba, and believe me that was my worst experience in my entire life. Cuba is not a country, Cuba is another planet. Believe me , I have been in other countries, and Cuba is worst than Haiti, worst than Ukraine. In Havana you can’t walk in the streets because is full of holes, you will need a mask because you can’t even breath because of the smell of garbage around you. I rented a suite in the Habana Cohiba Hotel and it was terrible. Let me tell you that I was planning to stay for 2 weeks and after the 5th day I went back to USA. No internet, no WiFi, and no electricity for five days was impossible to stay in Cuba.
Now, I can say that people in Cuba are living in hell. The worst inhumane conditions in the world. GOD BLESS CUBAN PEOPLE.
The joke is so true. What are the three great triumphs of the Revolution? Sports, Healthcare and Education. The three failures? Breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Cuban government wants the blockade (embargo) it allows them to control their people..
Been to cuba several times..
The Castro government regime must be overthrown
Anyone knows what Comrade Ben is smoking? Because to write that fantastical story about Cuba…
Everyone who thinks that Cuba is an example of excellence and is the embargo fault not the socialist regime should pack their bags and go and live there. No taxes!!!! Leave wherever you are now and stay in Cuba. In 6 months I want to see your smart comments about the embargo.
Thank you all for reading this article and taking the time to comment. For those who still think Cubans were better off with Castro, who sing the praises of Cuban education and healthcare: you’re not Cuban, you didn’t live there and never had the chance to live the Cuban average life under Castro. That spirit of camaraderie you talk about doesn’t exist anymore, it’s dog-eat-dog everywhere you go. Don’t be fooled by the government propaganda and above all else, stop repeating that propaganda to others. You want to know about Cuba? Come to Florida, ask Cubans here. Ask old people what it was like before Castro. Read history books published in the US, not the ones published by the Cuban government. Please, open your eyes.
How sad it is to see this beautiful country falling apart after decades of abandonment and neglect.
The “failed” Castro regime brought a lot of problems and a lot of equity to Cuba. There’s a comradare, a spirit of helping each other, something that’s absent elsewhere.
I wish there’d never been an embargo so that we could see what Cuba was really capable of. Their health care system and vaccine research have been phenomenal over the years
Don’t fool yourselves , there is no embargo in Cuba. The government buys from other countries and resell them to profit from them . The oligarchs steal all of the profits and the country starves . It’s a farce
Embargo is the problem, whole world knows
I was a 2 times a year visitor
Pre year 2020 and Cuba was greatly improved from 2003.
We went back in March of 2023, the whole country has regressed. . Due to the pandemic? Due to the mishandling of the inept government. !!!. Cuba needs a government that is for the people not just governing for their special Elite.
It would be a gem today if they left it in the hands of Santo Trafficante and the mob.
The failed Castro regime provided education and healthcare, people were far better off. The black market runs Cuba, thankfully.
On the occasion of my first visit to Cuba in 2008, I spent my first week at the Havana Libre. At that time, Cubans were still largely prohibited from entering tourists hotels. Because I look Cuban, I was stopped every time I returned to the hotel by security and asked to show my passport. There is a uphill curved driveway in front of the main entrance to the hotel and the security outside oftentimes watched me climb the driveway wondering where I headed. Even after I moved out of the hotel and into a Casa Particular, I would return to use the pool or visit the coffee shop. It’s a little sad to see this hotel fall into disrepair but like everything else in Cuba, the failed Castro dictatorship destroys whatever it touches.