The Historic Causeway That Transformed Villa Clara

Villa Clara commemorated the start of construction of the Caibarién-Cayo Santa María causeway, a project considered one of the most significant works of Cuban civil engineering. The project began on December 15, 1989, championed by Fidel Castro with the purpose of developing tourism on the island.

José Luis Licor Suárez, director of the Gaviota Tours Centro Travel Agency, recounted that Fidel first visited the northern cays of Villa Clara on September 12, 1989. The then First Secretary of the Provincial Party Committee, Tomás Cárdenas García, had informed him about the area's extraordinary natural conditions.

After flying over the zone by helicopter and listening attentively to the specialists studying the area, Fidel descended and walked into the sea. There, he firmly indicated that this was the site where the investment should be executed.

The first stone of the causeway touched the saltwater at two o'clock in the afternoon on December 15, 1989. What seemed like an initial bubbling took shape as trucks began to pour their heavy loads into the sea.

The first stage concluded on December 15, 1994, with the joining of two sections started from the coast of Caibarién and from Cayo Las Brujas. The second stage finished in 1999, after the construction of several bridges and raising the causeway to its planned height.

Luis Ángel Ortega León, territorial delegate of the Gaviota Tourism Group Centro, recalled Fidel's words when he stated that millions of visitors would come to Cayo Santa María. He emphasized that this vision was fulfilled thanks to the project that paved the way for tourism development in the region.

The Caibarién-Cayo Santa María causeway received the international Puente de Alcántara Award for the Best Ibero-American Civil Engineering Project for the 1998-2000 period. Its construction enabled the building of hotels with over 12,000 rooms in a territory boasting 17 kilometers of virgin beaches, consolidating the destination as one of the most attractive in the Caribbean.