MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Raul ends “tourist apartheid”; opens hotels to Cubans

Cubans with foreign cash allowed into top Hotels

Cuba has opened as of Monday luxury hotels and resorts to all Cubans, ending a ban long described in the island as “tourist apartheid”. This is the latest is a series of decision to lift bans and regulations on goods and services which anyhow most Cubans can't afford.

Since been confirmed as president Raul Castro has allowed Cubans with foreign cash to buy computers, DVD players, plasma televisions and in the coming days cell phones, consumer goods only companies and foreigners were previously permitted to buy. However 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. Nevertheless the measure is largely symbolic since tourist hotels in Cuba can cost anywhere from 60 to more than 200 US dollars a night, well out of reach for most Cubans who on average earn 20 dollars a month. The latest announcements follow on February's promises when Raul Castro succeeded his ailing brother Fidel as president. When he took the helm Raúl said reforms would be on the way. "I have referred to an excess of prohibitions and regulations, and in the next few weeks we'll start lifting the most simple of them," he said. In a video that made the rounds on the Internet in February, a student asked the president of Cuba's National Assembly why Cubans could not travel freely to such resorts. Though such public displays of discontent are rare, the video echoed sentiments voiced in private for years, particularly since the fall of the Soviet empire in 1991 when Cuba lost billions of dollars in subsidies. Tourism has become Cuba's main hard currency industry with an average two million tourists, mainly from Europe visiting the island annually.