Category: Marcelo Hernandez

One morning, with his fishing rod pointing to the dark waters of the bay, not only does Sergio catch some small fish to put on a plate, but also tips from tourists who want to take a picture of him or talk about the kinds of fish there are in their countries.

Nevertheless, with the travelers that arrive in big ships, he hasn’t had such luck. ” A cruiseship is a floating hotel that doesn’t even leave trash let alone money,” he lamented. “These people don’t sleep ashore, almost never eat in the restaurants and do little more than leave the ship to wait to get on a bus that takes them somewhere else.”

Sergio’s assessment coincides with the data from the 2016 Statistical Yearbook. That year, each foreign visitor spent an average of 765 dollars, while a cruise passenger spent only around 50. “For every $15.30 spent by a tourist who arrives on the island by plane, the tourist who travels by cruise ship spends $1.00,” adds a report prepared by The Havana Consulting Group (THCG).

“The income for the State is what the ships pay to dock inCuban ports but in terms of services, of course, they leave much less profit,” says Rodobaldo, a guide who works especially with Canadian cruise passengers.

“The client who arrives in this way does not need much from outside the boat because he has entertainment on board, so when he goes for a walk he does it for short periods and he only wants to go to places where everything is safe and well organized to get the most out of his minutes on land,” the guide explains.

“A bar, a place to dance and a museum, but they do not want to go further or risk getting into the depths of Centro Habana, or getting to know Alamar, leaving the city a bit to see something like the Botanical Garden or anything like that,” the guide explains to this newspaper. “It is a very isolated tourism that does not want risks of any kind.”

Some merchants near the port try to shape their offerings for quick visits. In the nearby San José dock, a handicraft and souvenir market has been serving “customers in a hurry” for months, as Liván Ramos calls cruise passengers. “They come and they want to get something before the ship’s siren sounds, so they pick up anything.”

At Liván’s stand there is a wide variety of products, such as an elderly couple carved in wood, the man with a bowler hat and the woman with an umbrella, for about $5.00. “These are in high demand among those who arrive on cruises as are the small canvases with images of the cathedral, the Bodeguita del Medio or the face of Che Guevara, which sell for $10.00.”

“We have collected the schedules for Royal Caribbean and other companies, so we already know that at least three times a week and after lunch they will drop by here in groups and in a hurry,” Ramos explains. “They do not bargain, they pay fast and even the bottle of water they are carrying has been taken from the boat,” he explains.

Ramos regrets that the infrastructure around the port “is still not very developed for the arrival of so many tourists.” In his opinion, “There is a lack of restrooms, places to sell drinks and more information points, as well as shaded areas.” The port also needs “urgent maintenance,” he says.

A private tavern, a few yards away, has placed a blackboard on its doorstep with the offers of the day that can be seen from the opposite sidewalk. The drinks have marine names like “Hola Ola” (Hello Wave), and “Velero Azul” (Blue Sailboat). “From the time the customer sits down until he has a drink in hand, is less than three minutes,” reads the poster advertising the cocktails.

The entire tourist geography of the area seems to have adapted to a type of express visitor who spends little. Tapas win the most complex dishes in the bars and restaurants closest to the sea, while sunny terraces are also more in demand than indoor air-conditioned ones.

“There are some who get off the boat and do not want to lose sight of it, so they ask to sit on the terrace,” says Malcom, who works in a small privately managed restaurant that has changed it offers to suit the new times. “No rice with beans, these people want fast and safe food like some fruit, croquettes, olives or snacks with cheese.”

Some young people eager to connect to the internet wait for cruise passengers and ask them for the login information for the floating wifi zone enabled on each boat. “There are people here who know that ‘the Royal’ has arrived not because they saw the boat but because with their NanoSation or Mikrotik (wireless routers) they can see the Wi-Fi signal,” explains Malcom.

“You need some user data to access the portal but any tourist will give it to you and once you get connected it works better than the Etecsa internet because it is very fast and without censorship,” he points out. “They don’t leave us with a lot of money but at least we save a few pesos we would otherwise have to pay to Etecsa,” the state communications monopoly.

Recently, it was announced that the Cuban corporation Aries Transporte signed a contract with the Turkish company Global Ports Holding (GPH) to expand and manage the cruise port of Havana. The agreement includes increasing the two cruise terminals currently operating to six. The details revealed do not include, however, any infrastructure other than berthing and passport and customs control for the ships.

Havana Bay still has large areas that are very deteriorated, with wharfs where there is only an old rusty structure and a narrow path that winds around the coast and makes it very difficult to bring in large buses like those for tourists. The increase in the arrival of cruise ships is making these problems even more evident.

The massive arrivals in the area began after the diplomatic thaw between Washington and Havana that began at the end of 2014. The United States relaxed some restrictions so that the ships passing through its waters also stopped at the Island and the Cuban authorities softened the previous positions of Fidel Castro, who demonized the cruise ships saying that they only left “their trash” in the places where they passed.

Last year the port of Havana received some 328,000 passengers and by the end of 2018 it was expected that the figure would grow to 500,000. But the first months of this year did not bring good news for tourism on the Island. The THCG report says that the first semester “has been traumatic and devastating for the Cuban tourist industry.”

Factors responsible for the fall in visitors range from a decrease in the interest in traveling to the Island, reinforced by the warnings from the US Government to its citizens; the damages caused by the weather, including hurricanes and droughts; and the stiff competition from other countries in the area, with cheaper offerings and higher quality services.

However, in the midst of this bleak scenario, “Cruise tourism enjoyed a 3% increase in market share compared to the same semester of the previous year, going from 12% to 15% of market share,” points out the THCG report released by economist Emilio Morales.

The rise in the number of cruise passengers is due, among other reasons, to the measure announced by the Donald Trump administration that prohibits Americans from staying at hotels or eating in restaurants managed by the Armed Forces, which control a large part of these services, through groups such the powerful military company Gaviota.

Cruise companies see a niche market and for more than a year companies like Carnival, Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean have added dozens of new itineraries to the Island, including new ports of departure in the cities of Tampa (Florida) and Charleston (South Carolina).

The Royal Caribbean company launched a larger ship for its trips to the Island. The enormous Majesty of the Seas is 880 feet long and travels between four and five nights from Tampa to Havana, including day or night stays.

With a capacity for 2,700 passengers, the shining floating city has become part of the landscape of Old Havana at the entrances and exits of the bay. One of the trips organized by the shipping company brought Samantha, a young woman from Indiana, who was making her first visit to the Island.

She told 14ymedio that she was especially interested in the old town and on a trip to the Vigía estate, as part of a tour organized to the place where the writer and Nobel Prize winner Ernest Hemingway lived. She has no plans to return to the island for a trip with more time because she prefers “to travel several countries at one time” via cruise ship.

The Island’s private sector, which survives from small commerce, private restaurants known as paladares, and private lodging rentals, does not like this type of tourists who do not spend anything. In addition, a sector of the exile sees in those cruises an instrument to “strengthen the totalitarianism” and has launched the campaign “Do not help the repression” which describes this form of tourism as “illegal and immoral.”

In spite of everything, the number of cruise ships arriving in Cuba is increasing and some companies have announced new routes. This is the case for the luxury company Seabourn, which will operate routes from Miami and San Juan starting in November 2019, which will include nights in Havana and stops in Cienfuegos and Santiago.

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The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.

For René, the high sugar intake of his compatriots is exactly what guarantees his business. “This is a profession that is fighting with dentists and nutritionists,” he jokes, saying that many of his customers ask him to make “dough that is not tasteless but very sweet.” Covered with chocolate, multi-layers with custard and crepes made of colorful meringues, the baker does not skimp on adding more and more sugar.

However, indoors, when he sits down to eat in front of his own plate, René avoids this ingredient. “I can’t even look at sugar because I have had diabetes for a lot of years, so I prepare these cakes and my wife is the one who tastes them to see if they are any good,” he says. This week he has a commission for a three layer creation with a fountain for a wedding. “I’m going to make it a cataract style and get a liquid chocolate preparation that’s good, very sweet,” he says.

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The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.

On a corner of in Havana’s Vedado neighborhood last Friday, at least twenty families waited for the bus that would take them to Cienfuegos. Loaded with bags and several baby strollers, the holidaymakers greeted the bus with applause of joy. They had made reservations for at least two nights with everything included at Hotel Jagua in that city in the center of the Island.

“On the same date last year there was no chance that we would manage to fit such a large group in a hotel in one of the most visited areas,” says Luciano, a private guide who has been organizing trips for eight years covering all the Island’s provinces. “Since foreign tourism bgan to increase it became more difficult to organize this type of travel for Cubans.”

“We are not fishing in troubled waters but in a calm river, if more people come from abroad we can not squeeze in our customers,” says Luciano. In his extensive catalog, some offers are marked with a red checkmark. “These are the most attractive but also the hardest to get, because foreigners like them a lot.”

“Cayo Santamaría, two nights with everything included for 160 CUC,” reads one of the promotions. Luciano organizes the transport with buses that work for state companies during the week, but that have permission from their administrations to make tourist trips from Friday to Sunday. “We leave the clients in the hotel lobby, they pick up the key to their rooms and start enjoying themselves.”

Luciano is one of the few who rejoices in the fall of foreign tourism and the increase in those who arrive on cruises, and sleep on the boat rather than occupying hotel beds. Between January and June, around 50% of American visitors who arrived on the island did just that. In Cuba, 17 cruise companies operate, including Norwegian Cruise Line Holdings, Carnival Corporation and Royal Caribbean Cruises, with a growth of 28.6% in the first quarter of this year.

Although the latest data on US tourism, released on Wednesday from sources cited by Reuters, are more optimistic than those of the same period last year, with an increase of 5% (68,000 Americans of non-Cuban origin), the outlook is still negative. Even more so if one takes into account the post-thaw euphoria.

Global tourism figures, about 2.5 million visitors to Cuba, fell by more than 5% between January and June 2018. The figures include cruises for the first six months, which brought 379,000 people to the island, 45% more than in 2017. Taking into account only American tourists, the fall for the period is 24%.

The impact on business in the most tourist areas has not been long in coming. Restaurants that barely manage to fill half their tables, rental houses that previously were occupied 80% of the time now looking at their almost empty rooms, and state rental car business that just a year ago couldn’t cope and now have parking lots full of cars.

“One yuma less, two Cubans more,” explains Luciano in a simple arithmetic. “When Americans arrive on cruise ships they do not rent accommodation and as a result of that pressure hotels that were no longer providing capacity for the national market are forced to do so and even lower prices. What before one foreigner would pay for one night, I can reserve for a national couple.”

“Another influence is that we are in the off season right now. For foreigners its too hot but for Cubans these are good dates to go to the beach.” Among the examples, he mentions the exclusive resorts of Varadero.

“These were places that were sold exclusively through foreign companies, but now appear more and more in our catalogs,” he explains. “The hotels that are run by Spanish companies or from other countries are those most requested by Cubans, because they know that the they willbe treated better and the facilities and supplies are better,” he says. “This is the time to catch a place like that.”

Tatiana, the daughter of Cuban and Russian, agrees with that opinion. “I have everything already reserved for this summer, but I am waiting for more offers to come available,” she explains to this newspaper by phone. With contacts in state tourist agencies such as Cubatur, the joung woman resells in-inclusive packages to Viñales, Trinidad and Varadero, to which she adds transportation and pick-up, “on the corner of their house.”

“I’ve worked with Cuban clients for three years and I prefer them despite everything,” she says. “It is true that when you arrive at a hotel with ten or fifteen Cuban families, you’re not treated as well as foreigners, but this is a clientele that does not depend on the arrival of a plane, on the arrival of a cruise, that is sold a reservation in another country, these customers are already here.”

“For another thing, I can communicate very easily with them and the clients I’ve been working with for some time know the rules.” Tatiana believes, however, that for a four or five star hotel with everything included is very likely that a Cuban guest will cost them more. “They eat a lot more and also want to try a lot of drinks they don’t get to have very often, like expensive wines, whiskey and even champagne,” she says.

The majority of Tatiana’s clients are the “new rich.” Cubans who receive remittances from abroad, are engaged in private businesses, have benefits through the sale of art or are part of musical groups. “Every once in a while an occasional client arrives who wants to book a trip paid for by a relative who is coming on vacation from Miami,” she explains. “They are all people with convertible pesos, from one side or the other.”

People with fewer resources frequently resort to Popular Campismo (People’s Camping), a plan created by Fidel Castro in 1981, to “open up valleys, beaches and mountains, a form of accommodation and enjoyment available to everyone.” The option, with very modest accommodations, does not enjoy a very good reputation among the social sectors that already aspire to more comforts.

“I sell tourist packages to Cubans but I treat them as people. Just because are nationals they don’t have to be given a worse product,, explains Tatiana. “In the end, they are the ones who support my business, and it’s better for me that foreign tourism keeps falling because the hotels are not going to close because of that, if they offer more affordable packages for those from here.”

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The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.

The “Pausini-Gente de Zona” effect was felt from the moment the day began. The farm markets in the area, unsupplied due to the weather problems that have affected agriculture in recent weeks, meant a day of empty pallets because many vendors preferred not to open to go to the show instead.

The self-employed took advantage of the avalanche of people from all the municipalities of the capital to offer corn chips, sweets and also whistles or rattles to accompany the music during the night. Balloons, T-shirts with the face of Pausini and some flags, completed the trousseau of the followers of the Italian singer.

Among the audience, most of them very young, there were also groups of foreign tourists who waited until 10 o’clock at night, when the concert began an hour late. By that time, the broadcast of the World Cup was over, which avoided the conflict between staying in front of the screen or getting soaked in front of the stage.

Miguel Diaz-Canel also attended the concert with his wife, Lis Cuesta Peraza, an unusual appearance for a Cuban leader, whose ancestors were only seen in political acts and official or very specific cultural activities such as those put on by La Colmenita or the Ballet National.

The president’s presence led the singer of Gente de Zona, Alexander Delgado, to ask for “applause for our president Díaz-Canel.” A call that was the only political note in the show, and a call that was not complied with by all spectators.

With an audience under the cover of umbrellas and layers to protect themselves from the water, Alexander Delgado and Randy Malcom began the concert with the famous song Bailando, composed by the Cuban Descemer Bueno and to whose success Gente de Zona contributed, along with the Spaniard Enrique Iglesias. Other classics, such as La Gozadera and Traidora, recorded with Puerto Rican Marc Anthony, were not missing either.

Pausini interpreted several of her songs that caused a furor on the Island in the 90s, among them La soledad and Se fue. In addition, she sang along with the duo Nadie ha dicho and, for the farewell, close to one o’clock in the morning, she sang Amores extraños, with the audience singing along.

Those who could not get to the concert, because of the rain or because they live in other provinces, regretted that national television did not broadcast the show live, as it has done on other occasions with cultural events of such importance. “We were not assigned a budget to cover the activity,” a cameraman from the Cuban Radio and Television Institute (ICRT), who preferred anonymity, explained to 14ymedio.

For Jorge Martinez, a resident in the municipality of Cerro, the concert “was good, but Laura was very slow to appear and I had to go at almost eleven o’clock at night because I was with my daughters and they couldn’t keep their eyes open.”

Among the spectators, Heidi Llerena and her friends, a group of young high school students, withstood the rain for hours and stayed until the music ended. “We came from Matanzas for the occasion and even if a hurricane had arrived we were not going to leave,” the young woman told this newspaper after the last song.

Mixed rhythms, including reggaeton, enjoy a lot of popularity among young Cubans, more and more removed from the so-called protest songs of the 70s and 80s. Music to dance to, shake the hips and enjoy, reigned all night in Sports City, with here and there more romantic moments or the sounds of a ballad.

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The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cub

After the declarations from Customs “we must take extreme precautions and avoid bringing a lot of the same product,” explains Rubén. “The ‘mulas’ (mules) are warned that they should not transport sealed packages, because that sets off the alarms that these are things are going to be delivered to different customers,” he says.

Parcel shipments through southern Florida agencies that the Island’s Government considers illegal have skyrocketed in recent years. The recipients on the Island are the relatives of Cubans who have emigrated, and also small businesses that have been opened due to the economic flexibilizations pushed by Raul Castro.

The economist Emilio Morales, director of the Miami-based consulting firm The Havana Consulting Group, estimates that 90% of shipments arriving in the country come from the United States. The value of the goods that were sent last year amounted to 3 billion dollars, Morales told 14ymedio.

The practice of carrying the packages has grown among some emigrants who see working as mule a chance to visit their relatives on the Island with the costs of the plane ticket covered. After the diplomatic thaw between Washington and Havana, direct commercial flights were restored, one of the things that triggered these shipments.

The most common products sent through the mules are medicines, appliances, clothes, footwear and also dehydrated or canned foods. “A good part of the country ends up with something from these shipments because those who don’t get a package directly end up benefiting from the contents of packages received by others,” says Raima Gutiérrez, a hairdresser in a private business.

“Here the products we use, such as dyes and peroxide, come in with the mules because in the national stores they are very expensive, of poor quality and often are not the most wanted colors,” Gutiérrez says. “In this last week we’ve had to tell several clients that they’ll have to wait for the packages to arrive because they are paralyzed on the other side”.

Raima’s mother is anxiously awaiting a blood pressure monitor that a niece sent her from West Palm Beach. A neighbor of the family says that her “package” is stranded in Miami without daring to send it, while one of the hairdresser’s customer tells the story of his brother who had a dozen suitcase locks he brought from Madrid in his luggage confiscated.

The mules have reason to worry because the director of Technical Customs himself, José Luis Muñoz Toca, said in a press conference that more than three tons of products people tried to bring into the country through the shipping networks were confiscated. So far in 2018 the authorities have detected 113 cases of trafficking in merchandise.

In the eyes of the authorities, there are 29 agencies based in the United States operating in an unauthorized manner to send goods to the island “through travelers who bring them in exchange for payment or compensation.” In South Florida, companies like XAEL Habana, Va Cuba, Cubamax Travel, Viajes Coppelia, Habana Air, Blue Cuba Travels and Central America Cargo have been banned.

The authorities blame the intensification of the controls on the fact that these agencies “do not have official contracts with Cuban companies authorized to carry out these operations,” while promoting the use of the officially approved companies to send parcels to the Island.

The importing of these goods is “a commercial transaction,” the authorities complain, and the contents of personal baggage, when it is used to transport commercial packages, are “subject to the administrative sanction of confiscation, if there is no more serious crime.”

“If they would let us bring in merchandise to maintain these businesses, in a legal and transparent manner, we would not have to engage in all these illegalities,” says Hilario, 47, an interior designer. This has been one of the great demands of the self-employed sector that aspires to obtain the right to import and export freely, along with the possibility of having a wholesale market.

“All the stores are state-owned and staples are very expensive,” the man says. “Without the monthly package, with toothpaste, soap and bouillon cubes that my sister sends me, everything would be more difficult.” The designer also receives materials that he needs for his work. “I was expecting good caladors and a laser to measure rooms, but now everything is stopped,” says Hilario.

The sharing of a video filmed at the José Martí International Airport in Havana, in which two Venezuelan women are seen being beaten and arrested for allegedly transporting merchandise to the island, has added fuel to the fire of fears.

The images have circulated widely via wifi or Bluetooth on mobile phones. “If this is what happens to foreigners what is in store for Cubans,” says Hilario.

Venezuelan journalist Elyangelica González recorded the images of the arrest of Yussely and Amanda López, who say they were beaten by immigration personnel after they were not admitted after an attempt to confiscate their luggage.

The Venezuelans claimed the contents of their luggage were gifts for the doctors who operated on their father and other friends on the island. Both deny that the products were going to be marketed.

Cuban Customs has also intensified in recent months the controls against the so-called Venezuelan “bachaqueros” (black-marketeers), who use the island to sell some products and buy food and dollars to take back to their country.

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The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.

An essential ingredient in lime-based drinks, mojo criollo marinades and avocado salads is once again available.

There is a catch, however. Just as limes were making a triumphal comeback, soap began disappearing. There is no discernible cause-and-effect relationship between the recovery of the citrus harvest and the disappearance of this essential element of personal hygiene, which cannot be found even in the most expensive shopping malls.

Sometimes it is dry wine and beer, toilet paper or cassavas, matches or dishwashing detergent. It is as though it were all scientific planned. It’s like that old joke about the socialist hell: the sinners cannot be punished because some key component of torture, such as oil for the pot or wood for the fire, is always in short supply.

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The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.

“We have bet on Cuba and we will continue to grow with Gaviota with a second hotel and maybe a third one,” Kempinski’s director told Cuban state television. Destribats was optimistic about the results of the luxury hotel which, he said, has customers from markets such as France, Spain, Australia, Germany, the United Kingdom, Russia and China. However, he did not provide any occupation data and the employees believe it is underperforming.

“This seems like a museum, one of those that is very beautiful but almost empty,” a waitress told 14ymedio on condition of anonymity.

“We are afraid that there will be cuts in personnel and that they will send us home, as has happened with other hotels,” explains the employee who receives a little more than 300 Cuban pesos per month (less than $ 15) for her work. “Last week several clients who came to an event saved us, but they are about to leave,” she laments.

Located in an historic area, the hotel occupied the old Manzana de Gómez shopping center, a name Havanans still use to refer to the place. After several years of repairs it went from being an aged and dirty building to emerge with all its impressive architectural details restored.

“Most of the guests who come to the bar come to admire the view of the city and the ’infinity’ style pool that attracts many fora  little refresher,” says the bartender. “It is very peaceful up here and since we are open until midnight it’s a place for the tourists to go after they leave the concerts or the cultural activities in the area.”

“Many people come to look and browse because the restoration process was very painstaking and the hotel has spaces that make you want to stay, but putting your hand in your pocket to rent a room is a real stretch,” a waitress explained to this newspaper.

“If there are few guests, it makes no sense to work here, because the most important thing for us is the tips that the workers share at the end of the day, but in the last weeks it has been very poor,” she complains.

The employee calculates that the hotel is now below 20% occupancy, which other employees of the hotel and those working in the tourism sector confirm. “At the moment this seems like an investment for the long-term, because the hotel has little demand because of its prices,” confirms Katy Ramos, tour package manager.

The clumsy launch of the Manzana is the fault of factors that go beyond its prices. “There is always someone willing to pay dearly for good service, but what is happening has nothing to do with the hotel but with the whole country,” says Ramos. “There is a fall in the number of tourists which is very worrying to all of us who live off this business.”

Tourism is Cuba’s second largest source of income, behind the sale of professional services abroad, and contributes 10% of the gross domestic product (GDP) in addition to generating half a million jobs. For the private sector it is also an important pillar that supports everything from rental houses, to private restaurants, private taxis and guide services.

From January through May of this year, Cuba has counted more than 2.1 million foreign tourists, 93% of those who had arrived during the same period in 2017. However, the figure “includes Cuban Americans who come to visit their families and also people who come to events and congresses, but don’t otherwise engage in tourism,” says Ramos.

The Government, however, maintains the official projections for 2018 of five million visitors with the aim of breaking the previous records of almost 4.7 and 4.5 million travelers in 2017 and 2016, respectively.

But the winds that blew away the diplomatic thaw between Havana and Washington, which attracted all sorts of celebrities to the island, seem to have changed course.

At the end of 2017, the United States Government announced that it would enforce a promise made by President Donald Trump in June of that same year, to crack down on commercial and personal travel of Americans to the Island.

The US Treasury published a list of more than 100 companies, which included restaurants and two rum distilleries, that travelers from that country may not visit. Several tourism agencies and at least 84 hotels throughout the Island appear on that list and the Manzana Kempinski is one of them.

Although it is managed by the German company Kempinski, based in Switzerland, the property is owned by the Cuban military corporation GAESA, which appears on the blacklist drafted by the Trump administration.

However, even if they are not staying at the site due to lack of resources or fear of penalties, many customers come in search of good services and the impressive supplies of the Manzana.

In the midst of the shortage of food and other products that have characterized the last weeks on the island, dozens of tourists come to the hotel every day in search of a good meal or those drinks that are scarce elsewhere.

In a city “where there is a scarcity of almost everything, this is a haven of comfort,” says Empar, a Spaniard who on Father’s Day Sunday was enjoying a cold imported beer on the terrace after “having walked through several stores and markets without finding anything I wanted. “

“I came for the views but of course I can not pay what they ask for a room,” he told 14ymedio. A night in the Patio room, the cheapest in the entire hotel, cost about $440 without breakfast, while the most exclusive, the corner suite goes for $1,355.

“It’s a shame that despite being half empty they do not offer a significant reduction in prices, because that would make many customers like me feel encouraged to stay,” says Empar.

Cuba is now in its low season of foreign tourism, because in the summer months people choose destinations cooler than the hot tropical sun of the island. These are the same months when nationals have a chance to be tourists because of the school holidays.

But the Manzana Kempinski is beyond the pockets of Cubans living on the island, where an average salary does not exceed the equivalent of 30 dollars a month. “Before leaving it empty they could lower the prices and fill it with Cubans,” joked Humberto, a baseball fan reconverted to football supporter during the World Cup in Russia and a visitor to the nearby sports club, known as La Esquina Caliente.

This character of “forbidden apple (manzana)” due to its stratospheric rates, has earned the accommodation many criticisms, especially for the contrast between its luxurious conditions and the neighborhood that surrounds it, plagued with serious housing problems.

The young artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara put on three artistic performances at the luxury hotel. In the first of them, he questioned the disappearance of the bust of the communist leader Julio Antonio Mella, previously stationed there; in the second he brandished a sledge hammer a few inches from the window of an exclusive store in the basement of the building; and in the third he ran a raffle to win a night in the only five-star hotel in the country, which was won by a young man about to enter to Compulsory Military Service.

“That may have been the first and only ordinary Cuban who has slept in those beds,” speculates Humberto, while gazing from the Central Park toward the empty entrance of the Manzana Kempinski.

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The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.

“Right now, our customers can just send us a message with the menu item they want and the address where we need to deliver it, but when they have internet on their mobile it will be better, because it will shorten the time and they will be able to choose the dishes online, with photos and details of the ingredients,” says Lucio.

A good share of the applications for phones for Android or iOS phones that have been developed on the island in recent years are designed for users disconnected from the great world web, so the apps need all the features to work offline. With the arrival of internet service to mobiles that may change.

“We will go from zero to infinity,” jokes Rigoberto Valdés, a computer scientist who works in a small workshop that performs mobile repairs and installs apps. “Often we have to update a customer’s cell phone or download an app he has ordered and then one of us has to go to a WiFi hotspot to do it,” he explains.

According to Etecsa statistics, almost 700 wireless internet access points operate in the country. Although the installation of these WiFi areas has made a big difference in Cuba compared to the beginning of the century, when it was a privilege reserved for foreigners and officials, many Internet users are still dissatisfied.

“The price of 1 CUC for one hour of navigation is still very high and trying to carry out a professional assignment in one of those outdoor places is complicated,” says Valdés. “I participate in several programmers’ forums and it is not the same to have to wait several days to get connected as it is to have the thread of all the discussions on your mobile.”

Etecsa begun to expand the 3G mobile coverage a couple of years ago, through which the Nauta mail now works, and which will also be the path for the internet. “The signal is still bad in many places, the data cuts out as if the lines are congested and the company has to fix that before expanding the connectivity because to navigate you need good bandwidth and stability.”

The presence of Cubans on social networks will also increase. “Now there are many people who have opened accounts on Facebook or Twitter but use them very little, when notifications arrive or messages from a friend go directly to a cell phone they will spend more time on the network,” adds Valdés.

Last week the blog Tu Android reported that pages from the domain ‘cu.’ are accessible from several phones. “They seem to be tests for the deployment of the long-awaited Internet by mobile data,” said the administrator of the blog, who qualified the news by saying that it could also be “a simple error” from Etecsa.

However, a few days later, the midday edition of the state television news program confirmed that a “pilot test” for mobile web browsing among selected clients in the province of Villa Clara was underway. The announcement has triggered speculation and increased expectations about projects linked to the world wide web.

The recent meeting between Eric Schmidt, former president of the Google company and current technical advisor to the technology giant, and President Miguel Díaz-Canel has also fueled hopes that, finally, massive access to the web will be a part of daily life on the island.

“A few months ago I downloaded an application that claims to work as a Cuban Uber, but in reality all contact with the driver is through Nauta mail, which is sometimes very slow and unstable,” explains Niurka Fuentes, a tourist guide who specializes in French speaking clients. “Since I have to move around the city and also the province a lot, it is vital for me to have quick contact with the driver.”

“If the internet comes to mobile phones, then we will have something more efficient so everyone wins. I win because I can transport my clients and the taxi driver wins because he can check who I am and my record as a client,” she says. Cuba expects to have 5 million active mobile lines by the end of this year and “almost half of the population may be connected,” Fuentes said.

For activists on the island, the delay in installing the service is not a coincidence. Iliana Hernández, director of the Lente Cubano (Cuban Lens) program, believes that “the more people have access to the internet, the more diverse information they will have within their grasp, including everything the government insists on hiding and censuring.”

Hernandez thinks that being able to surf the web from cell phones “will be very beneficial for activism which, despite the current restrictions, has managed to bring to light a lot of information that otherwise would never have been known,” she says.

Despite the expectations and the customers who, in recent weeks, have pressured Etecsa through virtual forums and calls to find out when the mobile phone internet service will start, the company persists in its traditional secrecy. “One day we wake up and ’boom’ and we are Internauts,” a teenager connected in a Wi-Fi zone predicted this Thursday.

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The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.

The cigar makers must sell their products to the State, which rates the leaves by quality parameters, among which are size, smoothness and color. “With so much rain it is to be expected that there will be losses because the farmer who sowed expecting to have a first quality leaf, will have to sell it cheaper if it deteriorates,” says the producer.

García grows the tapada variety, which grows under a cloth that filters sunlight and produces the leaves for the outer layers of the most sought-after cigars. “The product that comes from here goes mainly to the cigars that are exported or sold in stores in hard currency,” he explained. “That’s why they are very demanding,” he says.

The tobacco is planted by private farmers, cooperatives and producers who lease land from the state, in the Tabaco Business Group of Cuba, (Tabacuba), an extensive state structure composed of more than 45 companies including agricultural, agroindustrial, twisted tobacco, marketing and research.

In total, the Group manages 96 factories where cigars are made by hand and almost half of them are dedicated exclusively to exports. The rest, where industrially produced cigars and cigarettes are produced, go to the national market.

For Tabacuba these days of May are vital, because the leaf that is harvested in the fields and begins to dry will define the amount of their production and their ability to fulfill international commitments.

In a sector that contributes more than 400 million dollars a year from exports, tension is felt everywhere. After the last weather reports that assure that the rains will continue, the alarm has grown even more between the cultivators and the state administrators.

“By the middle of this month we already had about 30 million cujes collected and we thought we could harvest up to 20,000 hectares,” says an employee of Tabacuba in Pinar del Río. “This was going to be one of the biggest crops in recent years but the weather may force us to redefine those initial plans.”

Tobacco occupies fourth place in the Cuban economy and employs, in the normal season, about 150,000 workers, and up to a quarter of a million during the harvest. Among the most recognized Cuban brands in the world are Cohiba, Montecristo, Partagas and Romeo y Julieta.

The Vueltabajo area, where the Hoyo de Monterrey is located, produces approximately 70% of the national tobacco production. The damage caused by heavy rains, with waterlogged lands and soggy drying houses takes a special toll on the farmers.

“The weather situation is disastrous because all the tobacco that gets wet in the fields loses between 30 and 40% of quality,” explains Alfredo Pérez González, who lives on La Isleña farm and is in charge of the administrative part of this family enclave where several generations have traditionally cultivated the leaf.

“The problem is that the tobacco that is now spoiling in the fields because of the excess rain is not covered by insurance,” explains the young man. The National Insurance Company (Esen) only protects the tobacco crops that were “planted before January 31 and are the ones that have already been collected,” he adds.

The tobacco growers, however, take the risk every year to make a second planting after that time to be picked in the month of May. “It is a risky bet, luckily and truthfully, because if tobacco is lost or the harvest is damaged, the State does not pay a single peso,” says Pérez.

“Although May is always a rainy season, it’s been more than 30 years since we saw a month with so much rain.” A considerable part of the harvest “was still in the field and another part was recently harvested and that too is endangered by the increase in relative humidity that prevents the tobacco from drying as it should in the drying houses.”

“The affects are immense and the farmer has no support for what is happening,” says Pérez.

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From the hubbub of 23rd Street, the lot — surrounded by trees — can barely be detected by people waiting at the always crowded bus stop on what is one of Havana’s main arteries.

’I had hoped they would turn this into a pretty little park, with stairs and a recreation area, because this part of the city doesn’t have anything like that. But this vertical turd is the last thing we need,” says Ramón. “I didn’t like how it looked in the picture I saw. It’s horrendous.”

Photos of the model, published in government media outlets, show a building designed in a quintessentially Manhattan style. Marked by a dark and sober façade, “the monster,” as some area residents have already dubbed it, will have a ground floor dedicated to services and a pool from which guests can enjoy a view of Havana.

The new structure will stand in stark contrast to other buildings in the area, such as the Hotel Nacional and the award-winning Focsa Building, with their balconies, wide terraces, pastel colors and views of the sea lapping at the shoreline of the city’s most dynamic neighborhood.

Construction is scheduled to be completed in 2022. The building will be taller than the Habana Libre hotel and the towering monument at the Plaza of the Revolution, currently the tallest structure in the capital. However, neither its location or its planned five-star rating seem to have convinced its nearest neighbors or the architects.

“The architectural model looks like a shoebox,” says Amanda Corrales ironically. The young architecture graduate, who together with some friends runs a small private remodeling practice, adds, “The era of the skyscraper is over but we always arrive late to the party. So now we are opting for that type of vertical construction that disrupts all harmony.”

Havana has not seen much vertical growth, more because of economic crisis than because of conscious decisions on the part of authorities. We have been saved from a very common phenomenon in Latin American capitals: an abundance of tall buildings. Once we reach that point here, there is no need to worry about making aesthetic mistakes of that size.”

A building of that size is a small city and everything has to work with clock-like precision. It will be very susceptible to any number of problems, such as water cutoffs, electrical blackouts and hurricanes,” she points out. “Maintaining something like that is going to be very expensive and there is some question as to whether the growth in tourism will be enough to make a building of that magnitude profitable.”

The young professional is upset because “there so many good architects in this country but no publication has reported who is in charge of the hotel project.” Corrales believes that “a construction project of this importance, given its prominent location, should have been awarded through a competition so that the best design could have been chosen.”

However, like the powerful military conglomerate’s other projects, the lot on 25th Street is shrouded in secrecy. The names of the building’s architects have not been released but, within the profession’s trade union, there are doubts they are Cuban. “Didn’t they bring in workers from India to finish the Hotel Manzana Kempinski?” asks Corrales. “Would anyone be surprised if the architects aren’t from here either?”

Some, however, are more enthusiastic. One of them is Yosvel, a young man who works at a nearby private restaurant and spends hours outside hawking its menu. “A hotel of that size can help us attract customers. Many of its guests will ultimately want to try the food of local restaurants,” he says.

“It will bring new life to the area. People are already thinking about working here because obviously there will be a need for a lot of employees ,” he speculates. Yosvel himself, however, is not interested: “A lot of work for not much money. It will be a five-star hotel but salaries will be poverty level.” He also believes that “tourism has to rebound so that it has adequate occupancy.”

“This is not Dubai but, at the same time, we do not have to resign ourselves to remaining a city frozen in time. Foreigners would like that but those of us who live here need some visual modernity, more daring construction and buildings that will make us feel proud,” says Yosvel.

In the first four months of this year the number of tourists visiting Cuba shrank by 7% compared to the same period in 2016. In spite of these figures, the authorities announced that they expect two million visitors by the end of May and five million by the end of 2018.

But renewed tensions between Washington and Havana has reduced the flow of visitors from the United States, the island’s most promising and geographically accessible market. “Things are hard and, if they build a hotel with so many rooms nearby, they will get worse,” says consider Georgina (a.k.a Yoyi), owner of a house, whose four bedrooms she rents out, barely more than fifty yards from the site.

“It isn’t a fair competition because, if the government builds a hotel that big, it could leave a lot of rentors in the area without any income,” she predicts. She believes, however, that “private businesses can always offer more personalized and family-style service. And many tourists won’t want to be stuck in that big box,” she says ironically.

The area’s business owners can already feel Havana’s tallest hotel casting its long shadows over them. Though many of them, like Yoyi, are confident that “it will never be built because there are neither the materials nor expertise to build something like that here.”

They haven’t started pouring the foundations of the building that will mark the highest point in the city’s profile and controversy surrounds its construction. As with almost any issue of Cuba’s current reality, there are no nuances when people evaluate the new building. “It’s horrible,” declares Yoyi. But to Matiza Yosvel, “It’s the beginning of Havana’s future.”

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The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.

Raúl Castro will remain secretary general of the Cuban Communist Party (PCC), an organization with just over 600,000 members which the Cuban constitution recognizes as “the leading force of society and the state.” His term in office could last until 2021, when the next congress is scheduled to take place.

Although it is not yet known with certainty who the successor will be, all indications are that it will be the current first vice-president, Miguel Díaz-Canel, someone who did not participate in the assault on the Moncada Barracks, did not fight in the Sierra Maestra, did not have a role the execution of political prisoners during the early years after the Cuban revolution and was not responsible for the confiscation of private property or businesses.

“It does not matter what his name is; what matters is that he will be different,” observed Danilo, a rabid baseball fan involved in a spirited discussion on Saturday at the Esquina Caliente sports club in Havana’s Central Park. In the discussion there was the occasional comment about what would happen on Thursday.

“Brother, everything is the same, nothing will change,” responded Mandy, a twenty-one-year-old who claims to have no illusions about the arrival of a reformist figure to guide the country on the path of economic and political change. “They know that any movement can derail the system,” he says.

The presence of Bruno Rodríguez in place of Raúl Castro at the Summit of the Americas in Lima this week aroused speculation about the Cuban chancellor’s possible ascent. His name, along with that of Díaz-Canel, the economist Marino Murillo and the head of the Havana PCC Mercedes Lopéz Acea are those most often mentioned as likely candidates to lead the Council of State.

These four apparatchiks lack the historic credentials that their predecessors have long relied upon to wield power.

“I don’t want to even think about much less watch television that day,” says Acela, a sixty-eight-year-old retiree. “The biggest problem for me is that my income is not enough. I spend all my monthly pension in less than a week and even that does not go very far,” she adds.

For weeks, there had been speculation that Castro might begin the complex process of currency unification before leaving office. But with “19A” — as some refer to it —rapidly approaching, expectations are falling.

“He is leaving his successor with a huge problem if he does not fix the two currency situation, because that is something that will cause people a lot of problems and a lot of headaches,” says Omar, a taxi driver who transports customers from Havana’s Chinatown.

A few meters from the taxi driver’s Soviet-made vehicle, a young man hawks a restaurant menu in which Chinese dishes alternate with Italian ones. “This week we have the ’president’ pizza,” he says. “It has a little of everything: seafood to please some and ham to please others …” he jokes.

The restaurant hawker believes Díaz-Canel will be designated the succesor. Brought up through the ranks of the PCC, the current vice-president has survived purges to which others fell victim. His lack of charisma has kept him in office and protected him from being sacked, as was the fate of other former heirs-apparent such Roberto Robaina, Carlos Lage and the energetic Felipe Pérez Roque.

Many students in the School of Civil Engineering at the Instituto Superior Politécnico José Antonio Echeverría are not shy about expressing their positive opinions of Diaz-Canel, a fellow graduate whose his professional life has been spent in the PCC.

“He is a practical man, trained to operate in a collegial work environment, like all of us engineers are,” says Raydel, a recent engineering graduate who maintains close ties with others in the field.

“The fact that he has a university degree shows he is well-prepared and I hope his training is useful when the time comes to make decisions because there are a lot of things that need urgent solutions,” says one engineer.

In Havana, however, others believe his strength lies in his image as “a family man who has been seen in photos out in public with his wife,” as Karla Lucía, a self-employed hairdresser who works in a small beauty salon on San Rafael street, explains.

“This speaks well of him, going out with his wife. And this country might finally have a first lady,” she adds.

Most of those interviewed confined themselves to trivial comments and avoided expounding on possible political changes. “No, people here continue to wonder if they will be able to go on vacation or buy a house but aren’t really thinking about the president,” says María Dolores, a fortune teller who throws snails in ritualistic gestures outside a church dedicated to the Virgin of Regla in a town near Havana Bay. “If you already know the answer, you don’t ask the question,” she says.

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The 14ymedio team is committed to serious journalism that reflects the reality of deep Cuba. Thank you for joining us on this long road. We invite you to continue supporting us, but this time by becoming a member of 14ymedio. Together we can continue to transform journalism in Cuba.