A Cuban official assures that no one is destroying G Street: They created a platform where there used to be a pasture

Johana Tablada de la Torre, deputy director for the United States at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) of Cuba, believes that the criticism regarding the paving of a section of the iconic Avenida de los Presidentes in Vedado has sparked a campaign of slander on social media.

"No one is destroying the beautiful park on G Street. It is almost untouched and lovely," said the official on her Facebook profile.

"Only one block was filled with cobblestones because the sea comes in every year and floods it, bringing out the infertile soil that has been dirtying everything for a long time. They've been planting and sowing in that land for centuries, and it doesn't yield anything," he commented.

"It is also the venue for concerts by Casa de Las Américas and other popular festivals. They created a spacious area where there used to be a pasture. It was never as nice as the others," he added.

Tablada assures that she also did not like the solution, but that, in any case, the changes will not alter the monumental view of the promenade.

Cuban architects and specialists have explained that since Vedado is a Protection Zone, classified by the National Council of Cultural Heritage of the Ministry of Culture, any structural change must have the permits from several institutions. This process was violated by those who decided to modify that area of G Street.

"It's only 100 meters of a walkway that is more than a kilometer long and has the cobblestones," comments the public official.

This week, Cubans reacted to the paving of the central avenue, where the vegetation is part of its design.

The authorities modified a hundred meters of the street because supposedly the sea's encroachment was preventing the grass from thriving.

"The projecting entities have specialists in green areas and landscaping, urbanism, drainage and paving, risk management, etc., who coordinate strategies and proposals to enhance the sustainability of urban greenery in the face of climatic phenomena," noted architect Universo García Lorenzo.

Dozens of users have responded to Tablada's post because they disagree with the Government implementing a solution like this without prior consultation.

The Cuban singer-songwriter Silvio Rodríguez, one of the commenters on the post, wrote: "Forgive me the foolishness of wondering if it wouldn't be worth occasionally dumping some trucks of good soil (not blocked) to prevent the aggression to the historical identity of the city."

"If for you just one hundred meters of our avenue mean nothing, I truly feel sorry," wrote another user.