Saudi-Funded Mosque in Havana Moves Ahead as Cuba Runs Short of Fuel
CUBA · SAUDI ARABIA
Key Facts
- —The country Cuba, the communist-run Caribbean island just south of Florida, has endured long daily blackouts and fuel shortages since 2024.
- —Why it matters On 27 September Cuba’s grid could supply 1,240 megawatts against demand of 2,750, the energy ministry said.
- —What happened Builders have fenced a Havana harbour site for a Saudi-funded mosque, the independent Cuban outlet 14ymedio reported on 28 September.
- —The money Official sources cited by 14ymedio put the estimated cost at US$9.3 million, from Saudi Arabia’s state development fund.
- —What it means for you The money pays for a building, not for fuel, so it will not ease the island’s power cuts.
- —Still open No start or completion date has been published, and whether Cuba asked Saudi Arabia for oil is unknown.
Builders have fenced off the site of a Saudi-funded mosque in Old Havana, the historic core of Cuba’s capital. The independent Cuban news site 14ymedio reported the fencing on Monday 28 September, saying it followed nine years of announcements.
Official sources put the budget at about US$9.3 million, provided by the Saudi Fund for Development, the outlet said. The site adjoins the disused Tallapiedra power station, while Cuba’s grid struggles to keep the lights on.
What is being built, and by whom
A sign on the fence names the project the King Salman Mosque and lists its licence number and contractors. The complex is planned with prayer halls for about 500 people, a public library, a dining hall, gardens and community rooms.
The design comes from Restaura, the conservation arm of the Office of the Historian of Havana. That office leads restoration work in the historic centre, and it is formally the investor that manages the Saudi money.
The builder is Engimov Caribe, a company based in the Mariel Special Development Zone, a business zone west of Havana. According to its own website, cited by 14ymedio, its capital is entirely Portuguese.
Where the US$9.3 million comes from
The Saudi Fund for Development is the kingdom’s state development fund, which finances projects abroad. In Cuba it has financed seven other projects in health, sanitation and infrastructure, worth about US$193.3 million, 14ymedio said.
A fund delegation inspected the project in Havana in 2021, Middle East Monitor, a news site, reported in September 2022. It gave the same US$9.3 million cost, citing the Saudi daily Arab News.
Cuba’s foreign ministry has published reports on the fund’s visits. In May 2024 it said a fund delegation had pledged to keep financing projects on the island.
Deputy Prime Minister Ricardo Cabrisas said that visit strengthened ties between the two countries. The ministry named tourism and water resources as sectors the fund was ready to study.
Why 14ymedio contrasts the mosque with oil
The 14ymedio headline read, in translation: instead of oil, Cubans will get a US$9 million mosque financed by Saudi Arabia. The contrast is the outlet’s framing, set against the fuel Cuba lacks for its power plants.
14ymedio says the project was already Saudi-financed in 2016 and that its building licence dates from 2020. Whether Cuba has asked Saudi Arabia for oil or fuel credit is not publicly known.
The outlet also repeated a 2021 claim from an unnamed source at the Office of the Historian. The source said part of a US$26.6 million Saudi housing loan went to other works, including the Fidel Castro Centre.
14ymedio adds that part of the money went to the mosque project, but these claims could not be independently confirmed. The Fidel Castro Centre, in Havana’s Vedado district, opened in December 2021.
Cuba’s power crisis in numbers
At 6 a.m. Havana time on Sunday 27 September, the grid had 1,240 megawatts available against demand of 2,750. That left 1,500 megawatts short, more than half of what homes and businesses needed, the Ministry of Energy and Mines reported.
On Saturday night the shortfall peaked at 2,044 megawatts, the ministry said, as reported by the news site OnCuba. The Antonio Guiteras plant, Cuba’s largest single generating unit, returned on Sunday after boiler repairs.
On Friday 18 September the national grid shut down completely, the eighth nationwide blackout of 2026. Martí Noticias, a US government-funded Spanish-language outlet, reported the ministry’s statement on the failure.
OnCuba links the crisis to ageing plants, frequent breakdowns and fuel supply problems. It cites limited domestic oil output and what it calls a US blockade on imports since January.
US oil and fuel exports to Cuba rose to 778,000 barrels in June from 476,000 in May, US data show. That is about 26,000 barrels a day, up from 1,000 barrels in all of January, the Energy Information Administration reports.
Cuba’s small Muslim community
Cuba has about 8,000 Muslims, converts and resident foreigners, imam Alexis Aqil Sánchez Tamayo told The National, an Abu Dhabi newspaper. Estimates vary: 14ymedio cites about 5,000 in the mid-2010s, Middle East Monitor no more than 9,000 in 2022.
Today the community prays at the Abdallah Mosque on Oficios Street in Old Havana, opened in 2015 in a former car museum. It holds about 2,000 people, The National reported, and a Saudi team helped design its interior.
Sánchez Tamayo said a bigger mosque was planned by the harbour, near an old power plant, with support from Riyadh. He said it “will take some time” and “will be bigger than this one.”
A project announced many times
Talk of a purpose-built mosque in Havana began in 2014 and 2015, when Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan pushed for one. That plan never went ahead, and by 2016 drawings of a Saudi-financed complex were circulating.
In 2022 Cuba’s ambassador in Riyadh, Vladimir González, spoke about the Saudi donation on Saudi state television. He said Cuba was “building in Havana the first mosque in our country,” although the Abdallah Mosque was already open.
Saudi Arabia was the first Arab country to open diplomatic ties with Cuba, in 1956, according to González and The National. In October 2025 Prime Minister Manuel Marrero visited Riyadh and pitched Cuba to Saudi investors in renewable energy, food, tourism and health.
In Riyadh, Marrero stressed the “severe limitations” imposed on Cuba by the US embargo, the foreign ministry reported. For the wider background, see Cuba Explained 2026: The Economy, the Exodus, the System and What to Watch.
What is not known
No construction timetable or completion date has been made public, and 14ymedio says no foundations have been laid. The size figures also differ, from prayer halls for 500 today to older plans for 10,000 worshippers.
The National put the existing Abdallah Mosque at about 2,000 people, while the imam expects the new one to be bigger. The Saudi embassy in Havana did not respond to questions from The National in September.
What comes next
A fenced site and a posted licence point to work starting, but 14ymedio gave no start date. For people in Havana, the visible change for now is a building site on the harbour edge of the old town.
The Saudi-funded mosque does not make Saudi Arabia an oil supplier to Cuba, and it does not change the grid’s arithmetic. That still depends on fuel imports, plant repairs and solar parks, which peaked at 626 megawatts at midday on Saturday 26 September.
In mid-September, energy expert Jorge Piñón of the University of Texas called diesel the key fuel for Cuba’s economy. Speaking to Martí Noticias, he asked who is buying it and doubted that many Cubans can afford it with transport costs.
Frequently Asked Questions
Why has the mosque in Havana been linked to oil?
The independent site 14ymedio contrasted the Saudi-funded mosque with the fuel Cuba lacks for its power plants. Whether Cuba has asked Saudi Arabia for oil is not publicly known.
How many Muslims live in Cuba?
Estimates range from about 5,000 to 9,000. Imam Alexis Aqil Sánchez Tamayo puts the figure at about 8,000, a mix of Cuban converts and foreign residents.
Where will the new mosque stand?
On the harbour edge of Old Havana, beside the disused Tallapiedra power station. Havana’s only mosque today, the Abdallah Mosque, is on Oficios Street in the same old town.
Can visitors go to a mosque in Havana?
The existing Abdallah Mosque welcomes visitors from abroad, according to The National. The Saudi-funded King Salman Mosque has not yet been built.
This article was produced by The Rio Times’ automated newsroom system. How we use AI · Report an error
Read More from The Rio Times