Award-Winning Cuban Blogger
Posted: February 2, 2010 03:51 PM
Cuba's Premier Resort, Behind the Shiny Postcards
On a piece of land that enters the sea, Varadero gives the impression of
wanting to travel to another country, to somewhere distant and
different. The narrow peninsula displays its luxury tourist hotels with
their "all inclusive" wristbands. The buses go from one side to the
other, unloading suitcases and passengers along the elongated geography
of the best beach in Cuba. Some will stay - visiting only there - for
two weeks and board the plane to go home, thinking the rest of the
island is repetition of coconut, tanning cream, and sand.
At the entrance to this tourist area, a bridge over the canal marks the
border with the rest of the province. The sharp eyes of the police
detect the cars driven by nationals and to them they ask the reason for
their journey while evaluating whether to let them pass. If the
authorities suspect they are doing business in the illegal sale of
tobacco, sex or rum, they will make them turn around and go back the way
they came. But the principal control lies not so much in letting people
in, but in letting them leave.
Veradero is the place par excellence for the diversion of state
resources. It's employees load up with food and beverages stolen from
the hotel tables. They hide the booty of their embezzlement in under the
seats of vehicles, under their clothes, in the false bottoms of some
suitcase. The string of theft involves the cook and the driver, in order
to move the goods to a safe place. Everyone benefits later from the
black market sale of these items. Occasionally, someone is discovered in
this wheeling and dealing and legally reprimanded. But those postcard
images of the beaches, shiny and unreal, hardly notice.
Yoani Sanchez: Cuba's Premier Resort, Behind the Shiny Postcards (2
February 2010)
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/cubas-premier-resort-behi_b_446430.html
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