El APARTHEID SE APLICA CONTRA TODOS LOS CUBANOS, AUN TENIENDO DOLARES

Introducción y comentario de José A. Adán a un artículo en Reuters

INTRODUCCIÓN

"People are looking for any job connected with tourism, to earn dollars,'' said 'Jose', 35, who considers himself lucky to have a job ferrying tourists around Havana on his bicycle-taxi.

"We Cubans are being devalued. For you who bring dollars here, it's red-carpet treatment. For us, even if we have dollars, they don't treat us the same,'' he complained."

Esto lo dijo un residente de la Isla. El APARTHEID se aplica contra todos los cubanos, aun teniendo dolares. Pero los gobiernos de todos los países cierran sus ojos ante tal descriminante politica Fidelista. No hay voces que la condenen.!

Que diferencia con el tratamiento que recibió Sur Africa, porque descriminaba a negros no surafricanos. Los negros surafricanos son los Zulúes, y estos estaban incorporados a la sociedad surafricana. Pero la demagogia de los que sustentan las siniestras-izquierdas- ideas, y la avaricia de las transnacionales se confabularon para entregar las riquezas de Sur Africa a esas siniestras fuerzas.

Cuba discrimina a los cubanos blancos, mulatos y negros, estableciendo el Apartheid turistico. En los hoteles no se permiten negros en ningun trabajo, ni siquiera de limpiapisos.

LO QUE SIGUE ES PRUEBA IRREFUTABLE DEL APARTHEID IMPLANTADO EN CUBA POR FIDEL CASTRO, Y QUE ES TOLERADO Y A VECES APLAUDIDO, SOBRE TODO, POR LOS TURISTAS CANADIENSES, LOS VIEJOS LIVIDINOSOS ESPAÑOLES Y OTROS EUROPEOS, COMPLEMENTADOS POR EL TURISMO HOMOSEXUAL.

José A. Adán

CAYO LEVISA, Cuba, March 3 (Reuters) - Less than an hour by boat off Cuba's northern coast lies Cayo Levisa, a paradise-island of white-sand beaches, turquoise waters and wooden huts at the edge of the Caribbean sea.

Such idyllic islands abound off mainland Cuba, some also reachable by car thanks to lengthy causeways across the sea built in recent years by a government eager to maintain one of Latin America's most impressive tourism booms.

While access to these dreamy island-hideaways -- and other top tourist spots in Cuba -- is straightforward for foreigners, it is not so easy for the island's 11 million inhabitants.

On the causeways, or in the ports where boats leave to the islands, for example, Cuban officials check passports and papers to ensure that non-authorised locals do not pass.

"This place is for international tourism only, Cubans can only go there to work," said a man selling boat tickets for Cayo Levisa who did not want to give his name. "Every country has some restrictions, everyone has to live with his situation."

A similar situation exists in other prized island destinations like Cayo Coco or Cayo Guillermo, and in most of the dollar-only hotels at Cuba's best beach resorts and in the main population centres like Havana or Santiago de Cuba.

Primarily for financial reasons, President Fidel Castro's government opened up the tourism sector at the end of the 1980s, and in the subsequent decade the industry overtook sugar to become the salvation of the economy that has been in crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union.

One of the most controversial aspects of the tourism boom, however, has been the practice of restricting access for Cubans to hotels and top tourist destinations.

POLICY MAY BE REVISED

"When there is greater (hotel) capacity, this policy will be revised. We considered it a necessity for the development of the sector,'' Miguel Figueras, a senior adviser to Cuba's tourism minister, told Reuters in an interview.

Cuba plans to nearly double its hotel capacity in the next five years to more than 60,000 rooms, mainly on the northern islands, such as Cayo Coco and Cayo Guillermo.

Figueras said Cuba was aiming to attract seven million tourists by 2010, up from an intended two million this year, and more than 1.6 million in 1999. Numbers would soar further if the United States lifted its long-standing economic embargo, which effectively prohibits American tourists from coming here.

Beyond practical arguments, there is also an ideological justification by Cuba's ruling Communist Party for what Castro foes condemn as a policy of "tourism apartheid."

"We have a policy of not increasing inequalities. It is not appropriate to change it yet," Figueras said, articulating the official line that it would not be fair for some Cubans, with access to dollars, to be able to enjoy what others cannot.

The tourism adviser also pointed out that high-performing Cuban workers who surpass production quotas are often rewarded with trips to normally foreigner-only hotels, and that there are anyway plenty of other beaches in Cuba open to everyone.

In reality, most Cubans would struggle to pay an average nightly hotel bill at the top tourism resorts of around $70, given that the average state salary is only around 200 Cuban pesos or $10 per month (plus subsidised food and services).

The government generally tries to direct Cuban holiday-makers toward "people's camping grounds." These parks, full of simple huts in attractive spots around the country, are without many of the conveniences of a hotel complex, and are often in a deteriorated state.

CUBANS RESENT INFERIOR TREATMENT

"It bothers me a bit that I can't go to tourist hotels. Probably, it's because there isn't enough room and the government has to earn dollars. Anyway, in your country do they let you go where tourists go?" asked one young hotel worker ingenuously at a four-star installation in Havana.

Moaned a waiter in a Havana restaurant: "The normal thing would be that, with dollars, you could do what you want. Here, the marginalized people are us, the Cubans. We see how privileged the tourists are, whereas for the Cubans there is camping, lots of camping, and it's horrible."

As much as the government might want to avoid it, however, tourism is opening significant breaches in Cuba's tightly-controlled society. It is both churning up the social structure, and giving Cubans hitherto unprecedented contact with foreigners, analysts say.

Tourist sector jobs are the most sought-after in the country because they allow some earnings in dollars via tips, bonuses or under-the-table dealings. In modern Cuba, a hotel doorman can easily earn in a day what a surgeon or university professor picks up in a month.

"People are looking for any job connected with tourism, to earn dollars," said "Jose", 35, who considers himself lucky to have a job ferrying tourists around Havana on his bicycle-taxi.

"We Cubans are being devalued. For you who bring dollars here, it's red-carpet treatment. For us, even if we have dollars, they don't treat us the same," he complained.

Furthermore, in a country where Internet access is not openly available and where few have access to media other than those controlled by the state, contact with foreign tourists has become something of a window on the world for Cubans.

The Castro government, in power since the 1959 Cuban Revolution, is convinced, however, that the avalanche of new visitors will not undermine its socialist principles, which include a deep distaste for private property, consumerism and personal enrichment.

"The Cuban people really believe in the ideas of socialism, and that does not frighten us," Central Bank President Francisco Soberon told Reuters when asked about possible ideological conflicts with the tourism boom.

"Fidel has said that virtue is proven by contact with bad."

END

Reuters
Cuba, March 3, 2000

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