Madrid/The company Terminal de Containeres Mariel SA (TCM), belonging to the military conglomerate Gaesa and operator of the main commercial port in Cuba, has transferred its assets to Coral Marítima SA, a state company attached to the Maritime Port Business Group (Gemar), dependent on the Ministry of Transportation. The movement seeks to remove from the radius of US sanctions a key infrastructure for Cuba’s foreign trade.
The operation was communicated through a letter sent on June 25 to the terminal’s customers, a copy of which he had access to. 14ymedio. In the statement, the company reports that “Terminal de Conteneres Mariel SA sold its assets to the Cuban commercial company Coral Marítima SA, an entity that established the subsidiary Terminales Portuarias CORAL SA, to take charge of the business that was carried out by TC Mariel from now on,” and specifies that the operation is “in the culmination of the corresponding legal procedures.”
The company anticipates that the new company will assume the contractual relationship with clients and that they will be called to sign new contracts “ensuring commercial continuity.” Likewise, it tries to convey peace of mind to customers by ensuring that “the terminal will remain fully operational during this process” and that daily activity will continue “with complete normality, guaranteeing the execution of the services that are usually provided to them.”
The reorganization responds to the attempt to protect the operations of the port of Mariel and prevent international companies from being exposed to sanctions
Coral Marítima SA develops investments and operations related to maritime transport and port activity. Unlike Terminal de Conteneres Mariel SA, the company does not appear within the Gaesa business network. The reorganization responds precisely to the attempt to protect the commercial operations of the port of Mariel and prevent international companies that operate there from being exposed to US sanctions.
Gaesa also recently got rid of the joint venture that managed the Miramar Business Center in Havana. The British fund CEIBA Investments Limited announced on June 5 which began to control 100% of Inmobiliaria Monte Barreto SA, which operates the Miramar Trade Center. Until then, real estate was shared by Cimex SA, Gaesa’s largest commercial and financial conglomerate. The talks for this transaction they began in 2017 and closed in April 2026.
The decree signed by Trump last May 1 expanded US sanctions on trade with Cuba to include “any foreign person” operating in the “energy, defense and related material, metals and mining, financial services or security” sectors of the Cuban economy, or any other sector of the Cuban economy.
The consequences of the sanctions began to be felt a few weeks after their entry into force. Two of the largest shipping companies in the world, the French CMA CGM and the German Hapag-Lloydsuspended their services to Cuba in May. The decision paralyzed a good part of international freight traffic and forced numerous operators to review or cancel contracts. The new transfer seems aimed at facilitating the resumption of operations by removing the terminal from Gaesa’s business link.
“The situation in Cuba continues to deteriorate as the island’s corrupt, brutal and anti-American communist regime continues to prioritize its absolute control over freedom”
The US sanctions package against the economic pillars of the Cuban regime has also precipitated the withdrawal of foreign companies such as Canadian mining company Sherritt International and the Australian Antilles Gold. The tourism sector also suffered a hard blow with the departure of the associated foreign hotel chains to Gaviota – the tourism group controlled by Gaesa –, including Blue Diamond Resorts, Iberostar, Meliá and Archipelago International.
The measures reached the state-owned Financiera Cimex SA (Fincimex) – also attached to Gaesa – with the suspension of operations of Visa and Mastercard on the Island. On June 11, the inclusion of the state company Cupet on the list of entities sanctioned by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) frustrated the operation of the company Vanguard Energy, based in Florida, which aspired to carry out one of the higher private fuel sales to Cuba in recent years.
On June 23, Ofac incorporated to its List of Specially Designated Nationals (SDN) to five other Cuban companies of the military conglomerate: Almacenes Universales SA, Banco Financiero Internacional (BFI), Geominera SA, the José Martí Steel Company (Antillana de Acero) and Rafin SA
The Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, published then in X: “The situation in Cuba continues to deteriorate as the island’s corrupt, brutal and anti-American communist regime continues to prioritize its absolute control over the freedom, opportunities and basic well-being of the Cuban people.”
