The official press criticizes the management of the village, where only 35 cabins operate, half of the workers are missing, and salaries do not reach 3,000 pesos.
14ymedio, Havana, 13 July 2025 — Looted by bandits, illegally occupied, a refuge for victims: the popular campsite at San Pedro, a beach in Bahía Honda (Artemisa), has been through it all. Once a paradise, the place is practically inaccessible due to the marabou weeds and the poor condition of the roads. As if that weren’t enough, it was hit by a cyclone last year, and its devastation is still visible, as if Rafael—which hit Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane—had passed through yesterday.
In an report unusual for its critical tone, the newspaper El Artemiseño reports on the current neglect of the camping sector, run by the Alojamiento company. In 2014, when the government decided that the companies’ summer cottages would be used by the population or become homes for victims of the disaster, Alojamiento received nearly 30 cabins that belonged to the sugar industry. They came with “air conditioning, televisions, refrigerators, beds, curtains, various transport options, a generator, and other resources.” A similar number of cabins were transferred a few years ago by the Ministry of the Interior, which exchanged them for another village in Mariel.
More than a decade after it settled in San Pedro, out of 70 facilities, Alojamiento now has only 35 that are habitable, and only seven were occupied during the newspaper’s visit. “The hurricane caused a lot of damage to the roofs, when the coconut trees fell. They will be repaired, but so far there is no cement,” the director of the camp explained to the newspaper. However, Rafael is not the only disaster to blame for the area’s dereliction, with weeds over a meter high and abandoned to “neglect”—according to the newspaper.
Fallen trees, the remains of a playground, a restaurant, a ranch, or a game room—all are “at the mercy of the rain and the sun.” / El Artemiseño[/caption]
The mere 20 kilometers to enter are almost endless, between deep hollows and abundant marabou grass. One doesn’t pass any vehicles along the way, except those pulled by horses. And very few of them,” the newspaper criticizes, noting that with each step through the campground, it finds more traces left by “time and apathy.”
The government hasn’t passed up the opportunity to blame local residents: “This ’neglect’ was the opportunity for residents of Bahia Honduran, recently affected by the 2024 hurricane, to occupy cabins on their own. From others, they stole windows, doors, toilets, fences, and paving. And according to what we’re told, some ‘daring’ individuals marked the remaining ones as their property.” However, the newspaper acknowledges that if the authorities had done their job, things would be different.
Fallen trees, the remains of a playground, a restaurant, a ranch, and a game room—all are “at the mercy of rain, sun, and deterioration.” The options of those staying in the available cabins don’t vary much from those called out in the newspaper. “It’s an affordable option when comparing hotel and rental prices near the beaches, but it requires better conditions,” explains one vacationer who rented two houses for which he had to bring “everything, even the refrigerator and drinking water.”
The man has been a regular at San Pedro for 20 years, traveling with his family, and no one could better identify the facility’s debacle. “The campground staff is very nice, but they don’t offer food or recreation. The playground is gone. We cook with electric equipment, but due to the constant power outages, we use alternatives,” he says, before showing the newspaper a wood-burning stove.
Guests’ meals depend on what they bring to cook and the “knick-knacks” and drinks sold by individuals on the beach. / El Artemiseño
A resident of San Cristóbal, a city in the municipality, the Artemisa native paid 40,000 pesos to a private individual to take him and his family to the beach along with everything they needed for a few days of camping. The experience, in short, was disappointing: “No area shows its best side,” another vacationer explained.
Contrary to what guests report, whose meals depend on what they bring to cook and the “junk food” and drinks sold by individuals on the beach, the campground director claims he has the resources to provide lunches and dinners, “but campers don’t ask for them; they cook for themselves,” something the newspaper doesn’t fully believe.
The same thing happens, it says, with the sale of toilet paper, liquor, and “other goods” that haven’t been sold to visitors. “Something kind of strange,” he admits. But the answer to these irregularities soon becomes clear: the workers’ conditions are appalling.
“We can’t do much to expand our offerings because we only have one vehicle, not in very good condition, and a monthly allocation of 20 liters of diesel. Any form of non-state management is also not permitted at the facility, and the workforce isn’t even 50% covered. Salaries are below 3,000 pesos,” explains the manager.
Under these conditions, it is not unusual for San Pedro to be on the way to disappearing, as happened with La Herradura, another nearby campsite that, according to El Artemiseño, “disappeared from the map” after being practically abandoned.
San Pedro isn’t the only one “with its days numbered.” Two years ago, the province had 310 lodges, but by the end of last May, there were 242 left. The chronic lack of resources and budget for a sector that is far from a priority for the state only worsens the situation. A capital injection could solve part of the problem, but thinking that a miracle investment could rescue the facilities, the newspaper acknowledges, is a “utopian dream.”
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