From our Perils of Apartheid Tourism Bureau with some assistance from our Bureau of Socialist Funerary Competence
It looks as if the corpse has been found in Russia. So say the authorities. Let’s see if the news media keep following the story and confirm that this is true indeed. Knowing that the governments involved in “finding” the corpse are Russia and Cuba, the “discovery” might turn out to be a lie. And let’s also see if Castro, Inc. has really refunded the $10,000 that the grieving family paid it for retrieving the wrong corpse from Cuba, as some news outlets report. Real Cuba experts know that Castro, Inc. is not known for keeping promises or for issuing refunds of any kind. The Refund might have come from the Canadian government.
Abridged from CBC Canada
Faraj Allah Jarjour, a Canadian man who died in Cuba in March, was buried in a Russian town north of Moscow after Cuban government workers mistakenly switched two bodies before repatriating them to the wrong countries, according to his family.
The Jarjour family, who are originally from Syria and now live in Laval north of Montreal, were vacationing in Varadero, Cuba, when Faraj Jarjour, 68, died suddenly while swimming in the ocean March 22.
Weeks later, a coffin that was supposed to contain Jarjour’s remains was sent to Quebec by Asistur, a Cuban government agency overseeing medical issues related to travel.
When the funeral service hired by the Jarjours took it to the lab to have him prepared for ceremonies expected to begin last Sunday, the technicians discovered the man in the coffin looked nothing like the picture his family provided.
On Wednesday, Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Bruno Rodriguez made a post on social media apologizing for the situation and saying Cuban authorities were “investigating to clarify the incident.”
Later that day, Chavegros said he received information that Jarjour’s remains had been sent to Russia and that those of a Russian man were sent to Canada instead.
It was unclear at that point whether the Russian family who received Jarjour’s body was aware of what had happened.
But Miriam and Karam Jarjour say Canadian government officials, who are in touch with them every day, have now confirmed that their father was buried in Russia.
In a video interview from their parents’ home in Laval, Miriam Jarjour shook her head recounting the news.
“They’re going to un-bury him and send him to Canada,” she said. “It’s not a good situation, but we don’t have a choice. It’s not in our control. We can only be patient.”
Karam Jarjour said he was relieved to at least now know where his father’s remains are, thanking the Canadian government for its efforts.
Given how tourism has tanked in Cuba and how critical the Canadian tourists are, maybe this time they’re scared enough of really bad PR that they’ve actually returned the money. Of course, now there’s the expense of sending the presumably right remains to Canada, but again, we’re talking a terrible PR situation. We will see.