"There they come, there they come!"; "Oh, how handsome they are!" Three Cuban ladies, behind a fence and the security cordon, recorded with their mobiles the arrival of Felipe VI and Doña Letizia to the Palace of the General Captains , during their visit to the city of Havana . From the building hangs a pastry chef with the shield of the city, prepared by the Royal Tapestry Factory , a gift from the Kings. One of the most important entity that has made the Crown, which proves that the first official trip to the island, despite being uncomfortable by diplomacy, is considered important, transcendental and with a relevant economic mission after activation is the Helms law -Burton by the US.

The King, who knows the complex scenario and the concerns of the companies, has wanted to address the businessmen expressly and personally. Send a message of confidence and has committed the Government of Spain to act to defend their interests in their first words on the island. "I want to send you a very special greeting full of solidarity from all the Spaniards who know how much you have built here. We do not ignore the difficulties you face and that we are very aware of. Our authorities are working to alleviate its impact on you ", he said to the Spanish community.

Their presence in Cuba is "symbolic" or "historical," as diplomatic sources convey, but also in economic terms. It was a trip expected by Spanish businessmen, worried and suffocated by the new measures ordered by the US to tighten the embargo on the island, which opens the door to lawsuits against multinational companies operating on land or real estate nationalized by the Castro regime, and They are the vast majority.

Felipe VI, in addition to his words, has had another gesture with Spanish companies, such as staying at the Iberostar Grand Packard hotel, which appears on the US blacklist of companies with which Americans are prohibited from making any transaction.

"I want to refer today to the businessmen who are struggling to move forward with your companies and your businesses in not always easy conditions. Precisely now, the Queen and I want to show you our full support," Felipe VI has shown at the Great Theater in Havana "Alicia Alonso ", before more than 1,200 compatriots. After this meeting, Felipe VI has had a lunch with Spanish businessmen, one of the key events of his stay, with the presence of representatives from Meliá, Iberostar, Antonio Garamendi (Ceoe) or José Luis Bonet Ferrer, president of the Chamber of Commerce of Spain.

In Cuba, more than 250 mixed companies and branches of Spanish companies operate, most of them SMEs, with great importance in the hospitality and tourism sector. Donald Trump's decision puts them in check. The key is that Spanish firms such as Meliá and Iberostar and many others from different countries operate - generally in a mixed enterprise regime with Cuban state corporations - hotels and other businesses located on properties or land that were nationalized in the first years of Fidel Castro's term .

Trump decided to activate these measures of the Helms-Burton law, which remained suspended since its promulgation, sowing uncertainty among entrepreneurs, because it adds to existing problems such as the absence of favorable business environments, or legal insecurity. Also the problems of financial order, especially the delays in the payments that "condition and restrain the Spanish presence, especially of SMEs", as the Ceoe exposes.

Before fulfilling one of the objectives of the trip - backing businessmen -, the Kings have visited the origin of Havana, the temple where it is estimated the first Mass of the Villa San Cristóbal de La Habana was celebrated, founded in 1519. Afterwards, he has received from the hands of Reinaldo García Zapata, the highest authority of the city, the giraldilla, the greatest distinction of the city, under the feet of the statue of Christopher Columbus. Felipe VI and Doña Letizia have known some buildings accompanied by the historian Eusebio Leal, who has made an effort to his delicate state of health. Loyal has been decorated by the King with the Grand Cross of the Order of Carlos III, among other things, for being one of the drivers of the rehabilitation of Havana, work in which the Spanish Agency for International Development Cooperation (AECID) collaborates ).

In the Palace of the General Captains is known as the 'untouched throne of Havana' that was built in 1971 for a King of Spain, but none has ever sat on it. Neither Don Juan Carlos, who refused to do so in 1999, during his stay on the island on the occasion of the Ibero-American summit and neither will Felipe VI. "It would not have fit. I would have had to sit in it with all the Spaniards," Don Juan Carlos told reporters to explain his refusal to occupy the Royal Armchair located in the Palace - now the City Museum.

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  • Philip VI
  • Cuba
  • CEOE
  • Fidel Castro
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  • Donald Trump
  • Queen Letizia
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