Spain: Raúl Castro’s son-in-law, owner of three tourist apartments

Madrid/Paolo Titolo, Mariela Castro’s second husband, has up to three tourist apartments in Barcelona, ​​as revealed this Friday The Confidential. With a source in the Property Registry and people close to Raúl Castro’s son-in-law, the Spanish digital newspaper indicates that he bought them, respectively, in 2015, in 2017 and in 2019.

The first of them is a home of more than 155 square meters near Plaza de España and the Las Arenas shopping center, which, he points out, The Confidential“it is not within the reach of the pockets of an ordinary citizen.” The price per square meter in this area, according to house search portals, is more than 6,600 euros, so the Spanish digital company estimates its market value between 950,000 and 1,250,000 euros.

On June 9, 2017, the media details, he acquired the second property, an apartment in La Barceloneta, the old fishing neighborhood by the sea. With 32 square meters, its value is between 160,000 and 210,000 euros, indicates The Confidential“although the price may be higher, since the property has an elevator.” These types of homes, says the newspaper, “were highly sought after in past decades by investors who, after renovating them, turned them into lofts of an environment and dedicated them to tourist rentals.”

Titolo, of Italian nationality and a photojournalist by profession, “swarmed around Spain” for years, especially Barcelona, ​​to seek investments for Cuba.

The third apartment was acquired by Titolo in 2019, on Viladomat street, in Eixample, “in a building linked to tourist apartments, well built and with anti-noise glass,” he points out. The Confidential. Also measuring 32 square meters, the price of this property ranges between 180,000 and 220,000 euros.

The Confidential He relates that Titolo, of Italian nationality and a photojournalist by profession, “swarmed around Spain” for years, especially Barcelona, ​​to seek investments for Cuba. His main occupation, according to the digital, was “directing the businesses” of Américo Ferreira Amorim, who died in 2017, who was for a time the richest man in Portugal and became friends with Fidel Castro and his brother in the sixties. Titolo, assures The Confidential A businessman who knows him personally, “decided how to invest” the money that the Portuguese tycoon, owner of the Amorim conglomerate, sent “six or seven million euros.” At the same time, Raúl Castro’s son-in-law “was doing other businesses.”

In Barcelona, ​​the media reports, “he knocked on many doors, met with businessmen and asked to be introduced into elite economic circles to facilitate business in Havana. He became a simple commission agent who charged top dollar for his political contacts; there was a reason he was the boss’s son-in-law.” One of the businesses he tried, according to The Confidentialwas to obtain the representation of Nissan in Cuba, which “could not move forward” because “the Japanese did not give in” and continued to leave it in the hands of a Mexican billionaire.

The digital newspaper highlights the paradox that Titolo carried out all these operations while the mayor of Barcelona was the leftist Ada Colau, who declared open war on tourist apartments during her government. Furthermore, its first deputy mayor was Gerardo Pisarello, who to date has close relations with the Cuban Communist Party. He was, in fact, one of the passengers last March of the so-called Convoy Our Americaorganized by far-left organizations in solidarity with the regime and against the US blockade.

According to independent press reports, the Castro Titolo couple and their children form one of the richest families on the Island. CubaNetFor example, it was revealed that Lisa Titolo Castro, owner of the Gaia Mercado local development project, is linked to an entire network of businesses founded on the privilege of her last name, among them, fuel import. In addition to Gaia, Lisa manages two agricultural production farms, a meat processing company and two construction materials microenterprises, he said. CubaNet.

Residents of Central Havana, for their part, have pointed to Mariela Castro as a shadow in businesses that were once privileged, such as the Tribe Caribe hotelfounded by Andrés Levineither The Bikybut his name does not appear in them officially.