CUBA: Tourists Ignore Terrorist Attacks

By Dalia Acosta Reprint | | Print |

Dalia Acosta

HAVANA, Jul 23 1997 (IPS) - Several groups of tourists stand chatting in the garden of Havana’s National Hotel. nearby a lone man gazes out to sea while a honeymoon couple ponder on the cost of a hotel- sponsored outing.

The scene is typical of any day at a five star hotel catering to the international tourist trade in downtown Havana. Behind the peaceful facade, however, is the disturbing fact that on July 11 a bomb exploded in the National’s lobby – injuring three people. Minutes later another bomb exploded in the Hotel Capri, about a 10 minute walk away.

Broken windows were replaced immediately, and there is now nothing to recall what happened except a few changes in furniture arrangement, the disappearance of a public phone booth and the increased presence of hotel security agents.

Deputy Minister of Tourism, Eduardo Rodriguez de la Vega, says the incident did not affect tourist arrivals . Planes to Cuba remain full and “we’ve yet to see anyone overcome by fear,” he said.

Authorities have labelled the two blasts “acts of terrorism perpetrated by enemies of the government” of President Fidel Castro. On the same day the bombings took place, Cuba’s Interior Ministry issued a communique saying that the government had convincing evidence that the perpetrators – as well as the explosive devices themselves – came from the United States.

Rodriguez de la Vega later placed responsibility for the attacks on expatriate Cuban groups living in the United States. Then government opponent Vladimiro Roca, a member of Cuba’s Working Group of Internal Dissent (IDWC), condemned “all types of violent action, especially terrorist attack” and ruled out the possibility that the attacks were tied to any of the legal opposition activities which take place on the island.

However, Roca and three other IDWC members – Felix Bonne, Marta Beatriz Roque and Rene Gomez Manzano – were detained on July 17 “under suspicion of counter-revolutionary activity.”

Independent observers believed there was no connection between these dissidents and the hotel bombings but the IDWC allegedly has distributed anti-government reports to foreign journalists and diplomats.

Putting a brave face on the events, officials at the Ministry of Tourism revealed that during the recent “high season” (from December through March), the number of tourists visiting Cuba went up by more than 54,000 compared to the same period the previous year. In 1996, more than one million tourists came here and poured 1.3 billion dollars into state coffers – more than the revenue from sugar and nickel exports.

This year, Cuban authorities have expanded the definition of “tourist” to include “visitor” and the total of foreign arrivals is expected to be about 1.2 millioner for 1997 and 1.4 million in 1998.

Although authorities are busy projecting an image of tranquillity, tourism analysts say it is too early to predict whether fears of terrorism would eventually affect arrival figures. When the Cuban air force shot down two US-based civilian aircraft last February, tourists lept coming despite predictions that mounting hostility between the two nations would dampen tourist enthusiasm.

On the other hand, anti-government protests on August 5, 1994 and the flotilla crisis of the same year did provoke a sharp decline in tourism. Some 80,000 tourists canceled their holiday plans, depressing the whole industry for nearly a year. Since then, however, Cuba has embarked a successful course of popularizing the nation as a tourist resort and after a slow, steady recovery in late 1995, the number of visitors to Cuban shores leaped by 33 per cent last year.

According to the World Tourist Organization, the year 2000 will witness 670 to 700 million international tourists, among whom 20 million will travel to the Caribbean – nine million more than visited the region in 1990.

Cuba is the Caribbean’s largest island and is blessed with 1,200 natural wonders, 537 developed tourist attractions, 75 archeological sites, 60 scuba and snorkeling areas and two historical zones – Old Havana and Trinidad – that have been declared “Patrimonies of Humankind.”