An official from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MINREX) assured visiting Americans that in Cuba, unlike in the United States, hotels belong to the people.
Johana Tablada, Deputy Director General of the United States Division of the organization, met with over 150 leaders of movements and social organizations from that country in the gardens of the restaurant 1830 in Havana, where she passionately stated that the money spent by foreigners in the country goes towards public services.
"It is completely opposed to what the United States says, that the money goes to the military and all that nonsense they talk about all the time. In the case of Cuba, the owner of the hotels is the Cuban people; the money you spend at the hotel goes to public services, health, and education," he assured.
The diplomat "forgot" to mention that until about 15 years ago, Cubans residing in the country were not allowed to stay in hotels, even if they had money to pay for their stay, a prohibition that remained in place until 2008, when Raúl Castro repealed it in order to attract more foreign currency.
Even now, Cubans continue to be discriminated against in their own country.
In November 2021, when borders reopened to international tourists after the pandemic closure, it was mandated that Cubans wishing to stay in Varadero could not do so in the same hotels as foreigners.
On Thursday, during the meeting with American communists, Tablada addressed the situation of children in Cuba and reiterated the tired rhetoric of the regime that all children attend school for free.
"We don't have the Trump Tower, and that's why you won't see, at a time when our economy is under tremendous strain, children begging in the streets," he stated.
"That is not the image of our hemisphere, where countries richer than Cuba will have children begging. In Cuba, if you wake up early, you will see one of the most beautiful scenes on the planet. It doesn't matter if they are rich or poor, if their father is a nurse, a worker, or even an officer, they all go to school dressed the same at 7:30, because none of them has to work to survive," he stated amid applause.
The leader also spoke about the impact of the U.S. economic embargo and stated that the enormous Cuban migration exodus in recent years is due to the sanctions imposed by the Trump and Biden administrations.
"The logic of the policy is to apply the maxims and extremes of economic warfare against Cuba, while simultaneously launching a monumental effort with a disinformation operation to make the Cuban people and the world believe that Cuba is responsible for the impact of U.S. sanctions and the coercive measures imposed on us," he said.
"They spend millions to pay people to write that the reason 300,000 Cubans appear at the southern border of the United States in a year has nothing to do with the recent additional measures that, alongside the blockade, Trump and Biden have imposed on Cuba during the pandemic," he added.
Visitors, who are part of a solidarity brigade with the regime and will participate in the May Day celebrations, visited the Fidel Castro Ruz Center, a state institution aimed at promoting the thoughts and work of the late dictator, as well as the alleged accomplishments of the revolution.
The delegation arrived in the Caribbean nation on April 24, with the aim of "renewing the historical ties of solidarity between the peoples of the two countries," according to a statement from MINREX, and engaged in discussions with unions, artists, and youth collectives from Cuba.
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