MADRID. – The Minister of Foreign Affairs, European Union and Cooperation of Spain, José Manuel Albares, will meet this Monday afternoon in Madrid with the chancellor of the regime of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez, as reported this Sunday by Foreign sources.
The meeting “will be focused on the situation in Cuba and the next Ibero-American Summit, which will take place on November 4 and 5 in the capital of Spain, which holds the Pro Tempore Secretariat,” the sources specified.
This meeting, the third between the two after those held in November 2021 on the occasion of the Ibero-American Summit in the Dominican Republic and last September on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, was requested by the Cuban Foreign Minister, according to sources. Rodríguez last visited Spain in April 2017.
The Government Spanish has not commented so far on the situation in Cuba, whose authorities are trying to obtain help and support to face the crisis. At the moment, only Mexico has sent two ships with humanitarian aid, but oil is still not arriving.
In Cuba, according to data from the INE, there were more than 175,000 Spaniards in 2025, of which a large majority are people who have obtained nationality under the Historical Memory Law and the subsequent Democratic Memory Law.
There is a strong presence of Spanish companies in the tourism sector, mainly hotels such as Meliá, Iberostar or Barceló, but there are also investments in sectors such as the tobacco industry.
Cuba’s worst crisis
Cuba is immersed in its worst crisis since the so-called “special period” after the fall of the Soviet Union. The economic problems that the island has been facing for years, particularly as a result of the pandemic, are aggravated by the intervention of the United States in Venezuela and by the decision of the Donald Trump Administration to prevent the arrival of fuel to the island, threatening to impose tariffs on those countries that ignore this warning.
The lack of fuel, due to Cuba’s inability to cover its needs without Venezuelan crude oil, its main supplier, caused the suspension of flights and the closure of hotels, with the consequent collapse of the already battered tourism, one of the main sources of income for the country.
The island is also having a strong impact on the provision of basic services. The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights warned on Friday that intensive care units are being affected, as well as the production, distribution and storage of vaccines, blood transfusion and temperature-sensitive medications.
Likewise, he denounced that “more than 80% of water pumping equipment depends on electricity”, with the consequent impact on access “to safe drinking water, sanitation and hygiene” for the population.
