Monday, March 31, 2008

Now, hotels

The prohibition on Cuban citizens staying in Cuban hotels, often called “tourism apartheid” here, ended at midnight last night. AFP story here.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was big reason give by anti-family visits in Miami. They are already backtracking in the blogs this morning.

Before it was tourist apartheid, now, just this mornning, its "...but, but, but ,but, Cubans can't afford it"..

of course, this is true, vast majority of cubans can't afford it, but now the blessed Miami folk need to come up with some other reason to keep us good cuban-americans from practicing our god given right to visit our family!

Anonymous said...

Good article on this at KillCASTRO.com/blog. They also have a lot on the (in)famous Atlantic monthly map.

Anonymous said...

These loosening of restrictions must be driving the hard liners nuts.

Anonymous said...

The argument that the Cubans can't afford it doesn't hold water. It's the same in the whole region. She tourists not support the economies of Mexico or the Dominican Republic because the locals can't afford hotels?

CUBAWATCHER said...

This is most certainly very positive news. Granted, it doesn't mean much in the grand scheme of things but - if you've ever been denied entry to one of these hotels - as I have been, this restriction loosening will serve to alleviate at least a little bit of the humiliations that Fidel and Co. have caused us to suffer through for so long.

It certainly doesn't solve any of our problems, but I welcome the change.

Anatasio Blanco

Anonymous said...

It's another chip on the wall so it's welcome news.

Mamey

Mambi_Watch said...

Too bad. That whole "tourist apartheid" campaign was really beginning to take off.

Back to that "human rights" campaign, I guess.

CUBAWATCHER said...

Mambi,

The crumbling of tourism apartheid - while welcomed and needed - by no means ends the campaign for human rights on the island and substantive change. Again, this is a welcome change but it doesn't alter the bigger picture all that much. Still, as I said before, it's a welcome gesture.

That said - and perhaps I am inferring incorrectly - to equate (as you seem to be doing) the fight for human rights on the island with some sort of marketing campaign - is not only unsavory, but offensive.

Instead of coming off with sarcastic remarks that belittle the hopes of the Cuban people, why not celebrate in this one victory - no matter how small it is - of the people's will over the iron fist of the regime?

Sharpshooter said...

Anatasio,
don't waste your time enlightening Mambo Watch. He is a great admnirer of the Revolution and praises to high heaven. He will aplaud anything that benefits the Cuban regime as a great opening and proof of the wonderful changes Raul wants to implement, but the hardliners in Miami don't want him to succeed etc. And he will denigrate and mock anything that may show them in a bad light. This has been the tenet of his whole enterprise and his reason for bloging ever since he opened his own blog (now defunct)
His postings and comments on the March 13th incident are despicable and apologetic for lack of a better word. His concern is not with the cause of Human Rights in Cuba (why, in his opinion the human rights violator is the USA with the blockade and so on and so forth) well you know the same old mantra the leftwinger socialists continuosly repeat.
And this guy has the nerve to have posted he has a deep affection for the Cuban people because he spent his childhood in close contact with Cubans in South Florida. Well, with friends like this one, who the hell needs enemies?