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Cuba’s state-run love motels make a comeback


A young couple kiss on top of the fortifications of El Castillo del Morro, an old Spanish fort that stands at the mouth of the Port of Havana

Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images

A young couple kiss on top of the fortifications of El Castillo del Morro, an old Spanish fort that stands at the mouth of the Port of Havana

The first of the new motels to open will be a two-story building with 16 rooms and bathrooms managed by the Provincial Housing Company of Havana, which is responsible for a network of 27 state-run properties across Havana.

The new property is situated moments from a once famous posada, Munoz Chang.

Alfonso Munoz Chang, director of the Provincial Housing Company of Havana, hopes the initial project will allow him to set about restoring other love motel premises around the city.

“We believe in the real possibility of taking it back and developing it,” Munoz Chang told Trabajadores.

“Our goal is to recover that demanded service of great social impact and, undoubtedly, very profitable,” a translation of the interview read. “The main thing is to show that we can fulfil that purpose at the state level, and although we have the certainty of winning, we do not want to create false expectations,” Munoz Chang noted.

Though a largely Roman Catholic country, Cuba’s first love motel emerged in Havana in the late nineteenth century. In the early 1970s, 60 such state-run inns existed in the capital, though this number had halved by the late 1980s. In the 1990’s all remaining love motels were closed due to “economic deficiencies,” Trabajadores recalls.

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