NationStates Jolt Archive


Cubans now allowed to use Tourist Hotels, buy Computers, and other imported products.

The Lone Alliance
01-04-2008, 04:21
ATT AP article (http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?pnum=1&bfromind=7406&eeid=5786200&_sitecat=1505&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=2&ck=&ch=ne&rg=blsadstrgt&_lid=332&_lnm=tg+ne+topnews&ck=)Thanks Raul: Cubans Can Stay in Hotels
Published: 3/31/08, 10:25 PM EDT
By WILL WEISSERT

HAVANA (AP) - Raul Castro's government opened luxury hotels and resorts to all Cubans Monday, ending a ban despised across the island as "tourist apartheid" and taking another step toward the creation of a consumer economy in the socialist state.

Cuba has made a series of crowd-pleasing announcements in the past few days. Cubans with enough cash will be able to buy computers, DVD players and plasma televisions starting Tuesday, and soon they'll even be able to have their own cell phones - consumer goods only companies and foreigners were previously permitted to buy.

But the latest surprise, allowing ordinary citizens into luxury hotels and resort beaches long reserved for rich foreigners, is a particularly symbolic victory for Cuba's everyman.

"I was born here and live here. I believe, as a Cuban, I have the right to it all," said Elizabeth Quintana, a Havana resident. "It's good. Really good."

While there was no official word from the government, hotel employees said Ministry of Tourism officials told them that as of Monday, Cubans can stay in hotels and resorts across the island, and pay to use gyms, hair salons and other previously off-limit facilities. Cubans can even rent cars for the first time.

For now, few Cubans can afford a night at a hotel on a government salary, but that could change if Castro succeeds in increasing his citizens' spending power.

Meanwhile, the government is creating the kinds of consumer incentives any economy needs to thrive. For many years, Cubans haven't been able to buy certain electronic goods, lounge by the rooftop pool at the Hotel Capri or enjoy a drink at sunset on the grounds of the historic Hotel Nacional, no matter how much money they earned

As with other guests, the hotels will charge Cubans in convertible pesos, or CUCs, worth 24 times the regular pesos most Cubans earn. The four-star Ambos Mundos, a favorite of Ernest Hemingway in Old Havana, charges $173 a night in high season - more than eight times the average monthly state salary of about $20.

Still, at least 60 percent of Cubans have some access to convertible pesos and foreign currency, either through jobs in tourism or foreign firms, or cash sent by U.S. relatives. And these initiatives give them more reason to spend that cash, enabling the government to increase its reserves, said Arch Ritter, an expert on the Cuban economy at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada.

"I think this will get rid of many of the CUCs floating around on the street," said Magaly, a 69-year-old retiree who, like many Cubans interviewed, declined to have her full name appear in the foreign press, citing unspecified reprisals.

But the new government also risks increasing class tensions by suddenly making income discrepancies more evident in a society founded on the ideal of promoting social and economic equality.

"Authorization to stay in hotels is fine because it was unfair discrimination of Cubans with respect to foreigners," said Tatiana, a doctor in the capital's Vedado district. "But, I have to ask, 'What Cubans can pay a night in a hotel with a normal salary?'"

Fidel Castro spent decades rallying against any reforms that could promote a new class of rich Cubans, writing as recently as July that Cuba's poor are frustrated that the island is awash in convertible pesos.

But since he succeeded his ailing brother as president in February, Raul Castro has begun to do away with what he called "excessive restrictions" on daily life.

Relaxing the hotel ban eliminates a glaring historical contradiction within the Cuban revolution. When the Castro brothers' rebels took power in 1959, they joyfully overran beach resorts and hotels that had been the playgrounds of high-rolling foreigners, declaring them open to all Cubans.

Hotel restrictions were eventually imposed after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba's chief economic benefactor, to maintain equality when Cuba embraced tourism to jump-start its economy.

Hotel guards have stopped anyone who looks Cuban, limiting guests' exposure to hustlers and black-market peddlers, and police have turned away Cubans trying to enter the glittering, white-sand tourist resort of Varadero.

On Monday, tourism officials at Varadero said Cubans would now be allowed to walk the beach without restrictions, though none would divulge their names, citing government rules.

In Havana, doormen still guarded hotel entrances, and receptionists reported no immediate run on reservations in the luxurious but slightly shabby lobby of the Nacional.

Despite the restrictions, Cubans have been able to clearly see what they've been missing. The tourism industry now generates $2 billion a year, and while the U.S. travel and economic embargo limits contact with Americans, Cubans mix freely with other foreigners.

Also, unlike North Korea and other closed societies, the overwhelming majority of Cubans have family in the United States, and illegal satellite hookups beam American TV into many homes.

Now some of the gadgets they have seen on TV are finally becoming more available on the island - and not just to the elite few.

An internal memo distributed to Cuba's largest retailer and obtained by The Associated Press describes a long list of previously restricted products that go on sale nationwide Tuesday.

In one store, La Copa, where DVD players were offered for $125 and Dell desktop computers for $540, a cashier said that starting Tuesday, a sign saying "only for companies and foreigners" would be removed.

"This is a dream," gasped Miguel, who joined other shoppers gawking at the shiny red, blue, silver and wine-colored electric bicycles suddenly on display at a shopping center in the upscale Vedado neighborhood. The Chinese-made bikes are charged through a power cord and had been prohibited for general sale because the government feared excessive use of electricity.

Cuba analysts say it's hard to predict where this is going in the long term.

"They're trickling out policy moves one by one, and there's no road map," said Phil Peters of the Lexington Institute, a pro-democracy think tank based outside Washington.

"I would doubt if Raul has a complete model in mind, Chinese, Vietnamese, whatever," added Ritter, the Canadian economist. "I think he's going with things that work in the short run. And where it's going, I don't think he could even say or would want to say."

Raul is definitly not his brother it seems. It's interesting that he's beginning to allow the Cubans some sort of Economic freedom.
Andaluciae
01-04-2008, 04:37
ATT AP article (http://my.att.net/s/editorial.dll?pnum=1&bfromind=7406&eeid=5786200&_sitecat=1505&dcatid=0&eetype=article&render=y&ac=2&ck=&ch=ne&rg=blsadstrgt&_lid=332&_lnm=tg+ne+topnews&ck=)

Raul is definitly not his brother it seems. It's interesting that he's beginning to allow the Cubans some sort of Economic freedom.

Most of the indicators would lead me to believe that he's far more pragmatic than his brother, but it's also important to remember that Raul doesn't have the cult of personality that Fidel has. Without such a following, he would not be able to enforce the sort of unequal, hardship economy Fidel kept in place for so long, by claiming revolutionary legitimacy, foreign threat and crazy-badass style.
The_pantless_hero
01-04-2008, 04:45
Fidel is a stubborn idealist. Raul is a pragmatist - he isn't doing this because it's good for the Cuban people; he has ulterior motives.
Veblenia
01-04-2008, 05:23
I feel the need to point out that Cuba was/is not the only tourist destination to bar its citizens from using local resorts, and there's nothing particularly "socialist" about it. Good luck finding Nevisians at the local Four Seasons, for example.
Andaluciae
01-04-2008, 05:35
I feel the need to point out that Cuba was/is not the only tourist destination to bar its citizens from using local resorts, and there's nothing particularly "socialist" about it. Good luck finding Nevisians at the local Four Seasons, for example.

Evidence of that?

I don't see the point in locking out the locals, if they're able to pay for the room.
Guibou
01-04-2008, 05:37
Evidence of that?

I don't see the point in locking out the locals, if they're able to pay for the room.

So that they wouldn't mix with tourists and learn that their country isn't all that great?
Veblenia
01-04-2008, 05:49
Evidence of that?

I don't see the point in locking out the locals, if they're able to pay for the room.

Well, first of all, very little of any dollar spent at one of those resorts actually stays in the country. Most of the inputs required to run the resorts, not to mention the ownership, comes from abroad, so letting the locals into tourist establishments is basically encouraging capital flight. Monte Carlo won't allow residents to use their casinos for much the same reason. You need to show a passport to get in the door.

Second, there is a class of overseas traveller that really doesn't want to mix with the locals. I find it personally repugnant, but having worked in these kinds of places I can verify it. Letting the locals come and use the facilities will discourage a portion of the establishment's clientele.

I'm sorry, but I don't have evidence readily available online. I'm speaking from my own experience living and working in the Caribbean. Take that for what it's worth.