A hotel on Cuba’s famed Varadero Beach, has taken a stretch of beach and cordoned it off from the public so foreign tourists, in this case Germans, can have exclusive use of it. The Cuban government-controlled management of the Melia Las Antillas hotel apparently doesn’t want poor and miserable Cubans spoiling a day at the beach for German tourists who are filling the regime’s coffers with hard currency.
In a tourist context preparing for the high season, the Meliá Las Antillas hotel, located on the famous Varadero beach, has sparked controversy with a recent statement regarding the creation of an exclusive area on its beach, intended solely for German tourists.
This change has raised questions about the future of public management of Cuba’s beaches, a sensitive topic given the history of the so-called Cuban Revolution, which at the discursive level prohibited the privatization of these natural spaces.
The official newspaper Girón reported that the deputy general director of the hotel, Yoel Luis Hernández Lantigua, highlighted in a recent interview the efforts to improve the establishment’s infrastructure, including the installation of umbrellas and loungers, as well as the renovation of various areas.
However, among the measures announced was the creation of a beach area exclusively for German tourists, a segment that, according to him, has “special requirements.”
This private area, located within a stretch of sea recently designated as “the best in the world” by the International Center for Training in Beach Management and Certification (CIFPLAYAS) and the Federal University of Rio Grande, undermines the regime’s narrative of maintaining “a firm stance against the privatization of these spaces.” The regime claims these areas are heritage for all Cubans and ensures that access to the beaches is free and open to everyone, regardless of origin or nationality.
The beaches, which are among the country’s most important natural resources, were protected under a public access policy in an effort to prevent “capitalism and tourist exploitation” from impacting the enjoyment of these spaces by the local population.
The recent exclusivity for foreign tourists, particularly Germans, in a section of the beach at Meliá Las Antillas seems to contradict that longstanding position.
This appropriation of a public beach for the exclusive use of foreign tourists and the exclusion of Cubans shows that apartheid is alive and well in communist Cuba.
Right. Because hypocrisy is fine when leftists practice it. Besides, the “revolution” needs the money.