Saratoga, destroyed on Friday in Havana, was a hotel with many lives

This Tuesday, the Saratoga hotel in Havana should have finally reopened to guests after a two-year corona closure. Tourists could have shared their selfies from the rooftop terrace – with pool and spectacular views of the nearby Capitol Building – via the high-speed Wi-Fi connection. In one of the bars they could have paid too much for a mojito. In the cigar lounge they had a Cuban puro can raise.

Last Friday, around 11 a.m. local time, a massive explosion put an end to that planned reopening — and a slice of 143 years of history in the Cuban capital. A large part of the facade of the neoclassical style, mint green building was blown away, offering ordinary Cubans a glimpse into the extremely luxurious interior of the five-star boutique hotel. At least 27 dead, including four children and a pregnant woman, have been recovered from the rubble in and around the hotel in recent days.

‘No bomb, no attack’

The Cuban authorities immediately spoke of a gas leak and President Miguel Díaz-Canel swore that “there is no bomb or attack, it is a regrettable accident”. That denial was not so strange. In 1997, prominent CIA-trained right-wing exile Luis Posada Carlilles launched a series of bombings on Havana hotels in an attempt to undermine the booming tourism industry.

Mass tourism is the cork on which the socialist-led economy thrives and thus also props up the regime of the Communist Party. Tourism provides the ailing state with euros and dollars to import products that Cuba does not make itself. Saratoga, for example, is owned by Gaviota, a state-owned company that is part of GAESA. This is a military business conglomerate run by the son-in-law of former leader Raúl Castro. Since June 2017, GAESA has been a target of US sanctions imposed by President Donald Trump and not lifted by his successor Joe Biden since 2021.

Also read this report: Cuba after the Castros

Trump’s sanctions ended a brief period of relaxation following a visit by then-President Barack Obama in 2016. That brief detention also drew pop stars like Beyoncé, Jay-Z and Madonna to Havana, many of whom chose to stay overnight in the hotel completely renovated in 2005. The Rolling Stones also chose Saratoga as their base for their free concert on the island.

Ruined after the revolution

The building was commissioned in 1879 by the wealthy Spanish businessman Gregorio Palacios, just outside the city walls of the historic Habana Vieja district. At the time, one theater or hotel after another was built here. The Saratoga building had several functions in the first decades. On the ground floor were shops such as a tobacconist, only the top floor was initially for room rental.

It was not until 1933 that it became a real hotel. It immediately became a busy stopping place, where many artists settled in the first years. The open-air concerts on the roof terrace by well-known son artists became famous.

In the wake of the Cuban Revolution of 1959, the historic hotel became completely run down. The new Castro government nationalized it, but left it vacant for a long time, before being squatted by dozens of Cuban families, who turned it into their flats. It reopened in 2005 after a thorough renovation. Whether the building can be saved one more time – and with what money – is the question after the havoc that occurred on Friday.