Spanish Hotel Executive: Trump Looked Into Buying Cuban Hotels

The business organization of the US President-elect, Donald Trump, was looking into buying hotels in Cuba as recently as six months ago, according to a report by Skift.com, which cites a top Spanish hotel executive. This report would go against Trump's stated Cuba policy, which is to terminate President Barack Obama's opening of Cuba to US business.

According to Skift, the hotel executor is Miguel Fluxa, executive chairman of Grupo IBEROSTAR, who told reporters he had learned about the Trump Organization's Cuba interest from industry contacts. Fluxa reportedly made the comments at an event in Mallorca earlier this month to celebrate the company's 60th anniversary. Grupo IBEROSTAR has more than 100 hotels and manages Havana's Parque Central, a five-star hotel that for many years has been ranked as the city's best by Trip Advisor, Inc.

An IBEROSTAR spokesman told Skift that Fluxa learned of the interest from industry contacts in Cuba, not from the US President-elect Donald Trump. The spokesman, however, did note that Trump has not offered to buy or expressed any interest in Grupo IBEROSTAR's 11 hotels located in Cuba. Citing company policy, the spokesman asked Skift not to be named.

A spokesman for the Trump organization has released a statement saying the company does not intend to expand into Cuba.

"In the last 12 months, many major competitors have sought opportunities in Cuba," Amanda Miller, vice president of marketing at the Trump Organization, said in an emailed statement to Skift. "While it is important for us to understand the dynamics of the markets that our competitors are exploring, we do not intend to expand into Cuba nor have we ever done any business there."

Since 2014, President Barack Obama has begun to ease the United States sanctions against Cuba, allowing US cruise ships to dock at ports on the Island and also allowing airlines from the United States to fly to Havana. Trump, for his part, has said that he would reverse Obama's moves unless Cuba allows its citizens more political and religious freedoms.

"If Cuba is unwilling to make a better deal for the Cuban people, the Cuban/American people and the U.S. as a whole, I will terminate the deal," Trump said in a Twitter post on a recent Monday.

As far as the recently deceased leader of the island, Fidel Castro, is concerned, Trump released a statement tearing into him. Castro has long been considered by many as a socialist obstacle for America in its own backyard, ever since he came to power during a revolt in 1959.

"Fidel Castro's legacy is one of firing squads, theft, unimaginable suffering, poverty and the denial of fundamental human rights," Trump said in a recent statement.

Until October, it violated US sanctions to promote tourism in Cuba at all. The Miami Herald, however, recently reported that on Oct. 21 the Cuban tourism ministry invited the Trump Organization and other hospitality business to the 34th Havana International Fair, and, among those who attended, was Jason Greenblatt, the executive vice president and chief legal officer for the Trump Organization, according to an email been by Bloomberg.

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