When Communist Propaganda Runs Amuck: The Castro regime's tourist trap in Cuba

Communists lie people die

Italian tourist in Cuba: "“[w]e are in a terrible hospital, in awful sanitary conditions"

Channel News Asia reported on March 24th, "[a]s Latin American countries slowly began to close themselves off from the outside world against the threat of the virus over the last few weeks, Cuba continued to try to woo tourists - who brought in US$3.3 billion in 2018 - with wide-open borders and touting itself as a safe destination."

Cubanet reported on March 15th that Marta Cavallo, an Italian tourist diagnosed with coronavirus and admitted to the “Pedro Kourí” Institute of Tropical Medicine (IPK), over Facebook denounced conditions at the hospital, located west of Havana stating,“[w]e are in a terrible hospital, in awful sanitary conditions, when they give us food, they ask us to drink the soup from the plate, [without a spoon], there is not even toilet paper … they do not give us news of any kind, and it is impossible to talk with any doctor.”

Below is an advertisement posted on March 9, 2020 by Havanatur, a tourism company owned by the Cuban military that claims that because "Cuba is bathed in the rays of the sun all year, and taking pertinent measures they have greater strengths before COVID-19 and that Cuba is a safe destination"  showing a picture of folks on the beach in Cuba, without masks contrasted with two women with masks in an urban setting somewhere else.

On March 20, 2020, The Sun published "WHERE CAN I TRAVEL? Coronavirus travel advice: The full list of holiday destinations Brits can and can’t travel to" by Lisa Minot with a long list of countries either banning or putting strong restrictions on travel, but Cuba was still open for business:

"Cuba - No restrictions on entering the country. Screening on arrival, if presenting symptoms you may be taken to health facilities in Havana."

This at a time when Cuba is suffering from shortages of soap, and toiletries for Cubans in the island, and conditions in hospitals that do not meet minimum hygiene standards. Below is video smuggled out of a hospital in Cuba with patients exhibiting coronavirus symptoms.

Condiciones de los pacientes con sintomatología de coronavirus en un hospital de #CubaSocialista, @DiazCanelB ustedes son el verdadero y único enemigo del pueblo cubano. pic.twitter.com/HOG0unxtLI

— Andry Cuba (@CubaAndry) March 22, 2020

 On March 11, 2020 the  official press reported that four Italian tourists who were staying at a hostel in the southern town of Trinidad after arriving at Havana airport on March 9, 2020 had presented respiratory symptoms and were taken to a hospital on March 10th, and on Wednesday the hospital confirmed three of the tourists had tested positive for the coronavirus.

This was most likely a clever move after Panama's Ministry of Health, a day earlier, on March 10th reported that two Panamanians, ages 55 and 29 who visited Cuba had tested positive for the coronavirus when they returned home.

The Castro regime has invested heavily in international propaganda campaigns, and doctor diplomacy (that often times turns out to be human trafficking) to create a positive, but false, image of Cuba as a medical super power. Worse yet, the Cuban dictatorship has a history of covering up epidemics in order to lure in unsuspecting tourists. Prior to the coronavirus outbreak the most recent documented outrage was a Zika outbreak in 2017.
The 2017 Zika hidden outbreak in Cuba should have given pause to those planning to travel to the island on holiday in the midst of the coronavirus pandemic. Yale School of Public Health’s Nathan Grubaugh and his colleagues in a 2019 report revealed a total of 5,700 Zika cases in 2017 that went unreported by the Castro regime, and observed that the “2017 Zika outbreak in Cuba was similar in size to the known 2016 outbreaks in countries with similar population sizes.”  

Duane Gubler at the Duke-NUS Medical School in Singapore said Cuba had "a history of not reporting epidemics until they become obvious," and that this was due to their desire to maintain high levels of tourism into the country.

The Castro regime has confirmed 57coronavirus cases, 1,479 people are hospitalized for surveillance and 37,788 are being checked in on by medical students. Based on past history, things are most probably far worse on the island.

This is what the Cuban military that runs tourism in Cuba delivered.

 

 

Canadians get sick on holiday in Cuba and travel agency ignores the source of the illness.

When a free vacation becomes expensive.

Terri Murphy contracted an unusual fungal infection on her vacation to Cuba. (CBC)

Canada's Sunwing travel agency pitches Cuba as "Paradise…with a history." However it fails to mention some of the health risks of traveling to the tropical island and have been sued in the past. Now they have some more bad press coming their way because eight Canadians caught a serious illness in a cave in Cuba, but the travel agency continues to promote the trip without mentioning the health risks.

Doctors told her it looks like cancer, a month later and Newfoundland woman Terri Murphy now knows she and seven others contracted a deadly disease while vacationing in Cuba. The details at 6. @NTVNewsNL pic.twitter.com/RxAM4TvwN7

— Leila Beaudoin (@LeilaBeaudoin) June 28, 2019

Lamentably it is not only Sunwing. In September 2017 when Hurricane Irma, a deadly category five storm with 180 mile per hour winds was bearing down on Cuba and a hurricane watch issued, tourists were still being flown into the island by British and Canadian travel agencies.

The British travel agency "Thomas Cook has defended itself saying the company followed the Cuban government's emergency instructions to the letter," BBC News reported. Cayo Coco suffered the full impact of Hurricane Irma and was destroyed by the storm. They were flying tourists into Cuba to Cayo Coco a day prior to the storm's arrival, as reported by The Independent (United Kingdom).

Then again, the Cuban government covered up thousands of Zika cases in 2017 and placed pregnant women and their unborn children in danger who visited the island on vacation. CTVNews.ca citing a report from NTV’s Leila Beaudoin published  the following in an article today:

A Newfoundland woman, who said she contracted a disease linked to bat droppings during a trip to Cuba, is warning other travellers to avoid cave excursions on the island.

Terri Murphy, 34, said she is one of eight Newfoundlanders to come down with cave disease, also known as histoplasmosis, during a trip to Veradero earlier this month. Others are being tested, she said.

“My life has been altered. I can’t do what I used to do,” Murphy told NTV News on Friday. 

A Newfoundland woman says she contracted cave disease after visiting the destination.  The mother of two won an all-inclusive vacation to Veradero in the spring through Sunwing Airlines.

During the trip Murphy visited Cueva Saturno, or Saturn Cave, a destination included in a Sunwing excursion.  Murphy said she didn’t notice anything wrong until about two weeks after arriving home when she woke up in the middle of the night covered in sweat and unable to breathe.  “I actually thought that I was coming down with the flu,” she said.  As her condition worsened, Murphy decided to go to hospital.

The woman said cancer-like nodules showed up on her lungs, and doctors struggled to diagnose her. But then, Murphy said, doctors began to make connections between the woman’s case and those of other recent travelers to the tropical destination.  “They contacted Eastern Health and said, ‘We have a group of travelers that went on the exact same excursion together and they’re sick,’” Murphy said.

Cave disease is a condition associated with bird and bat droppings. It is especially common in caves and is spread when a person breathes in tiny, microscopic fungal spores. Complications from the disease can last up to a year, depending on the severity of the case.  Murphy recalled seeing bats flitting throughout the cave.  “Everywhere. They were everywhere,” she said.  Murphy said she decided to take her story public after learning that Sunwing still offers the cave excursion to travelers.

Sunwing responded in a statement, saying: “We are not aware of any customer complaints regarding histoplasmosis or any other disease or health issue related to either this excursion or to any of the other excursions that we operate.”  Newfoundland health officials issued a statement Friday afternoon warning international travelers of cave disease.

“Symptoms can include cough and chest pain, shortness of breath, fever and chills, headaches and flu-like illness. If you feel you may have contracted histoplasmosis, please contact your healthcare provider or proceed to the nearest emergency department,” Eastern Health said in a Facebook post.

 Tourists and prize winners beware these travel agencies are ignoring important health issues for profit. We've seen this also in the Dominican Republic recently with the deaths of a number of Americans on vacation there.

Travel agencies getting sued for misrepresenting conditions in Cuba to tourists

Travel agencies rosy picture of Cuba has a legal downside

Paradisus Rio de Oro in Holguin: what travel agencies show (left) what tourists see (right)

Lonely Planet pitches Cuba as "old school cool" and an "escape from the hustle and bustle" but at the bottom of the web page has one line of caution: "The US Center for Disease Control has issued a travel alert suggesting that pregnant women postpone travel to Cuba due to the presence of the zika virus." The Castro regime has a poor history of timely reporting of epidemics on the island, placing tourists at risk.  Canada's Sunwing travel agency pitches Cuba as "Paradise…with a history." However it fails to mention that the resort they were sending tourists to in Cuba had "water problems" which meant little or no water for at least 12 days according to a March 22, 2017 Global News article. In a follow up article on March 24th Global news reported on  the Starfish Cayo Santa Maria resort in Cuba:

Travellers told Global News they had little or no fresh water for their entire trip to the resort, making it impossible to flush toilets, take showers or wash their hands.
Some, like Donna Carvalho of Georgetown, Ont., returned to Canada and went almost immediately to hospital with severe diarrhea, vomiting and an excruciating headache. Carvalho was placed in isolation for five hours and released after she said doctors concluded she had likely become ill from unsanitary conditions at the resort.
Carvalho said she witnessed the hotel restaurant using a “dirty rag” to clean dishes, cutlery and glassware in lieu of a dishwasher. Other travellers described similar nauseating experiences.

The Canadian government has said that the ill served tourists, many of whom returned home very sick can sue the travel agency.  It is not only Sunwing that needs to worry about a lawsuit but also the British based Thomas Cook travel agency.  James and Kathryn Longhurst booked their dream honeymoon to Cuba for a two-week all-inclusive getaway in Paradisus Rio de Oro in Holguin, Guardalavaca that cost the newlywed couple $6,235.     Three days in, Mr Longhurst fell so ill his tongue turned black. He was rushed to the hospital, where he was given injections and put on IV drips. Returned home and continued to feel ill. They are now suing Thomas Cook.  Mrs. Longhurst also became ill. The newlyweds cited "filthy conditions" as the cause of the illness observing in a March 23rd article in The Sun that "dining restaurants were poorly kept with food not “covered properly”, “insects and birds” flying around the buffet area, staff not wearing gloves while handling food and the same utensils used for different dishes."

James Longhurst was put on an IV drip on his honeymoon

Tourism was supposed to be a magic bullet that would help to open up Cuba, but the reality has been more of a mixed bag with some unexpected downsides for everyday Cubans while strengthening the most repressive elements in the island. However at the same time tourists visiting the island on more than one occasion have encountered the real Cuba that the Castro regime spends considerable resources trying to conceal from outsiders. Nevertheless news accounts emerge that should give prospective visitors pause.

It is true that tourism provides hard currency to the Cuban military, that runs the tourism industry on the island shoring up the dictatorship, but not expected was that it would also generate food shortages among everyday Cubans as The New York Times reported on December 8, 2016.

Foreign tourists misled by travel agencies can seek justice and exercise their rights back home, but not in Cuba. Meanwhile Cubans have less access to food while the military and the Castro regime get richer off of foreign tourists prolonging the life of the dictatorship.

Tourism to Cuba: Travelers beware

What the travel guide won't tell you about Cuba

Sheila Dumbleton with her husband Ray

My conscience is clear because I have consistently warned tourists of the dangers of traveling to Cuba. The more pragmatic thing to do is to inform on purposeful travel to Cuba, how to avoid becoming a mouthpiece for the dictatorship and avoid being accused of sensationalism or fear mongering but then remaining silent would haunt me.

Visitors to Cuba have gone missing, been stabbed to death or strangled in their rooms, and shot to death. In March of 1997 an AK-47 wielding Cuban soldier, who according to the official explanation, had his weapon jam while firing warning shots over a Danish student studying Spanish cutting him in half with 7.62 x 39 mm rounds killing him instantly. In January of 2015 Albert Romero, a 39 year old Tampa attorney, was found dead with a hand chopped off, repeatedly stabbed and tied down in a chair in his room in Havana, with a family friend who was also murdered.

Cuba remains a totalitarian, communist dictatorship without a free press, accurate violent crime statistics are unavailable, and foreign media in the island self-censor. The same holds true with hygiene and healthcare. Under the Castro regime there have been outbreaks of cholera for the first time since the colonial period when it had been eradicated over 130 years ago. Sadly, tourists occasionally get to see behind the veil of propaganda. Sometimes they do not survive the experience.

On April 30, 2016 the blog post "Why travel to Cuba is no carnival ride" stated the following:

If you get sick don't count on the healthcare being free in Cuba. New York high school teacher Alfredo Gómez contracted cholera during a family visit to Havana during the summer of 2013 and was billed $4,700 from the government hospital. A total of 12 tourists have been identified who have contracted cholera in Cuba. 

Unfortunately the above information is not widely known because it does not fit the narrative promoting Cuba as a vacation destination or the dodgy nature of travel health insurance. Sadly there is now another cautionary tale.

Ray and Sheila Dumbleton traveled to Cuba in June of 2016 on what was supposed to be a dream vacation that turned into a nightmare that is still ongoing. Sheila (age 57) is dead and the family is trying to raise $26,700 to get her remains back from Cuba.

Birmingham Mail and ITV have covered the story interviewing family members. On July 24, 2016 Ray Dumbleton, the widower spoke to the press:

A grief-stricken pensioner said his wife was "left to die" in a Cuban hospital - because they could not pay a £20,000 medical bill. Ray Dumbleton said he was even banned from saying a last goodbye to his beloved Sheila, his soulmate of 34 years, as her body lay alone . The 67-year-old, from Frankley , said his ordeal was like "hell on Earth".

He said: "If you think of a World War Two scene, then that might just start to come close."
Sheila died in hospital in Holguin, Cuba, after falling ill on the sixth day of what had been planned as the couple’s ‘dream holiday’.
Despite taking out ‘gold cover’ travel insurance, she was unable to claim for her medical treatment and was left with a £20,000 medical bill.
The 57-year-old, who suffered a stroke, a bleed on the brain and other complications, died while she was receiving treatment in hospital.
Now, her distraught family have been ordered to settle her medical bill to pay and must also find an extra £7,000 to bring Sheila’s body home.
“It felt that, as soon as the hospital knew we couldn’t pay, they left her to deteriorate,” Ray said.
“All the doctors kept saying to us was ‘payment, payment’ but we didn’t have the money to give them.
“The conditions in that hospital were horrendous – something I find hard to put into words.
“There were dead bodies left uncovered.
"It was as if they didn’t care about people’s dignity.
“They wouldn’t even allow me to see my wife’s body and pay my last respects to her.
"They just kept saying it was Cuban law.
“I will never get that chance again. They have broken my heart,
“I kept saying: ‘Forget Cuban law, I want to see my wife’.
"But they would not allow me that last moment with her.
“I felt powerless over there.
"At one point they even threatened to put me into prison if I carried on demanding to see her.
“As soon as Sheila died, it felt like they couldn’t get me out of the country quickly enough.
“It was like nothing I had ever seen before – I was treated like a VIP, ushered straight through customs and there were no security checks.
“Now, I am glad to be back home but I will cannot rest until Sheila is back here with her family.
“The only saving grace was that I did meet some lovely people out there and without them, I probably would not have got through this ordeal.”
A spokesman for White Horse Insurance Ireland, with whom the couple had travel insurance, said: “We were very sorry to hear of Mrs Dumbleton’s circumstances.
“Regrettably, as Mrs Dumbleton’s medical history was not disclosed, her claim was not covered by her insurance policy.”
Relatives launched a fundraising drive when they discovered Sheila had fallen ill and would be unable to claim on her insurance.
A GoFund me campaign was launched to pay the medical bill and bring her home alive – but she died before the target could be reached.
“We have raised more than £4,000 already, so if it’s just the £7,000 then we could probably do it,” said daughter Erica McCleary.
“But we still don’t know if they will allow us to bring Mum home without paying the medical bill.
“I cannot begin to say how generous and kind people have been after reading about our story.
“We have had complete strangers offering us large amounts of money. One person even offered us their life savings just so that we can get Mum’s body home.
“We just want Mum home with us so we are able to grieve properly, as a family.
“It’s good to finally have Ray home with us after him being stuck out there for a month but we need to be allowed to grieve properly.
“This whole process has been a nightmare and it’s still not over.
“We managed to go out and see Mum when she first fell ill but we were not allowed much time with her. and we didn’t really feel like she was being cared for properly.”
Sheila became a great-grandmother while she was in Cuba but never got to meet her first great grandchild.

As a matter of conscience I would not travel to Cuba to go on holiday for a number of reasons. Personally going to the island would only be to help everyday Cubans obtain their freedom while seeking to limit hard currency that my visit would give to the dictatorship's most repressive sectors. At the same time it is important to know that there are risks to going to the island, and if you are going to go you need to have an emergency plan if something goes wrong, and awareness that you are not in a normal country.

The State Department Cuba advisory that the media is not highlighting

Placing Cuba in its proper international context

 
This blog has raised questions about the U.S. Embassy in Havana and the language in its advisories with regards to Cuban Americans. Incidentally, these advisories have garnered much press attention. The language has been changed and the State Department has explained the reason why.

At the same time a new issue arises over the hype of  American travel to Cuba. Why has the media not focused on the State Department's advisory for U.S. citizens that now warns that anyone can be detained at any time for any purpose and that the security services and "judicial" system falls far short of international standards. Here is the exact language:

U.S. citizens traveling to Cuba should be aware that the Cuban government may detain anyone at any time for any purpose, and should not expect that Cuba’s state security or judicial systems will carry out their responsibilities according to international norms.

In fact, when a former U.S. intelligence officer Mike Himsworth posts a copy of the advisory on twitter he is ridiculed by the pro-Cuba travel crowd and his warning dismissed.

@_akshun_ It's the State Dept.'s travel advisory. Missing/Ignoring it is their prerogative. https://t.co/Xqx7Z44stR pic.twitter.com/uPPqBr2AMF

— Mike Himsworth (@MikeHimsworth) May 1, 2016

Cuba and North Korea do have a lot in common and the refusal to recognize the repressive nature of both totalitarian regimes places at risk those who travel there believing these two countries are just like anywhere else.  

The State Department recognizes this as do U.S. intelligence officers but the news media and others are presenting a sunny image of a despotic regime that may endanger American lives. Meanwhile there is a public discussion of placing a travel ban on North Korea due to American tourists being arbitrarily detained there and sentenced to long prison terms.

Tourists and travel to Cuba: What the travel agencies don't tell you about crime

"Cuba has the lowest crime rate in the Western Hemisphere. Even in neighborhoods that you would avoid in other major cities (such as much of Centro Havana) you are unlikely to suffer any incidents of violent crime. Incidents, which do happen, are generally tied into a more personal encounter with ‘dubious characters’." - Christopher Baker in Cuba Absolutely and duplicated in Visit Cuba FAQs

Brandon Ross died under suspicious circumstances in Cuba in 2013

 On November 22, 2013 Brandon Bjorn Ross, a 31 year old American citizen visiting Cuba with his mother Onelia Ross, who is of Cuban origin, went out to take pictures in the early morning around the Hotel Nacional in Havana. The next time his mom saw him was at the morgue to identify her son's body. Government officials said that he had fallen from the roof of the hotel, but refused to provide Onelia an autopsy report and quickly cremated her son's body without her authorization. This despite Canadian offers to cover costs to ship the body home. Onelia (age 55) is an accountant who left Cuba 36 years ago when she met and married a Canadian diplomat who was posted in Havana. She had never spoken critically of the Cuban government until June of 2005 when she had a problem with an entry permit to enter the island. Brandon was a Canadian born U.S. citizen.

The claim at the top of the page relies on statistics and reports provided by the Cuban government and is contradicted by the suspicious death of Brandon Ross. There are plenty of reasons to question the veracity of the claims made by promoters of Cuban travel. Additionally, the last sentence provides a loophole that can be used to intimidate victims or their families from coming forward. It is essentially saying that when one visits Cuba one will not get into trouble unless one is looking for it.

The Castro regime and its agents of influence can do the rest to smear a victim of crime in Cuba, in order to preserve its reputation as a safe travel destination. If they do it all the time with human rights defenders and prisoners of conscience that they have killed then why not apply it to visitors when it serves their interests?

Despite this tactic other victims of crime in Cuba are known. Below are a few high profile examples.

Lara Jones strangled in Havana in 2012

 On January 4, 2012 Lara Jones, a 26 year old British woman who was "a highly experienced and cautious traveler", was murdered in Cuba. The killing did not make the news until September 24, 2013. According to the account presented in The Telegraph "the linguistics graduate was strangled and smothered by a security guard who crept into her room at the former convent where she was staying in the Cuban capital Havana."

This has been going on for a while, but news coverage seems to disregard the pattern and report the "low crime" narrative and ignore the unique dangers that arise from visiting a totalitarian dictatorship despite:

December 19, 2001 roadside murder of a family of five in Cuba reported in The Miami Herald at the time were the names of the victims: Florida residents Ada Lorenzo, 52, and Celedonio Placencia, 60, their daughter Yailén Placencia, 28, their grandson Daniel Osmani Placencia Pérez; and Domingo Delgado, a family friend who picked them up at José Martí International Airport in Havana. They were assaulted and killed as they traveled from Havana to their family's home in Santa Clara. Their bodies were found along a stretch of the Ocho Vias highway near Matanzas. Relatives in Florida said they were shot and stabbed and that the couple's daughter had her throat slit. The family had flown to Cuba on Sunday to visit Celedonio Placencia's gravely ill mother.

In May 2001, the Rev. George Zirwas, 47, originally from McDonald, PA, an American priest was strangled in his home in central Havana, a month after he returned to Cuba to help the poor. The Reverend was found by a neighbor. A State Department official said his apartment was ransacked.

There are cases of people having gone missing in Cuba. There is at least one case that involves a European.

Claudia von Weiss de Venegas missing in Cuba since 1999

 On November 20, 1999 Claudia von Weiss de Venegas, disappeared while on holiday in Cuba. She left the hotel on a bicycle with $500 and was never heard from again. Her husband, Miguel de Venegas, circulated fliers about his missing wife in Cuba and for his troubles was expelled from the country. Ten years later in a Hamburg news publication, Claudia's case resurfaced and her fate remains unknown but Miguel hopes one day to find out what had happened to his wife, but he has given up on finding her alive. 

In January 1999, two Cubans were sentenced to death for the September 1998 murder of two Italian tourists. A foreign press agency said the two Cubans also confessed to killing a German tourist in November 1997 and a Canadian of Iranian descent in August 1998.


It is important to underline that Cuba is not like any other country in the Western hemisphere, not due to alleged low levels of crime, but because it is a totalitarian communist dictatorship that has a complete disregard for human rights and that includes the right to life. This has dire consequences for Cubans living on the island on a daily basis, but on occasion it also impacts foreign visitors.

Joachim Løvschall killed on March 29, 1997

On March 29, 1997 Joachim Løvschall, a Danish student studying Spanish at the University of Havana was gunned down by an AK-47 wielding Cuban guard as he walked home. The body remained hidden for days. The shooter was never identified. Ten years after his son's extrajudicial killing, Christian Løvschall spoke at a parallel forum in Geneva Switzerland about what had happened:

Although the killing took place on the 29th of March, we only came to know about it on the 6th of April - I.E. after 8 days were we had the feeling that the Cuban authorities were unwilling to inform anything about the incident. Only because of good relations with Spanish speaking friends in other Latin American countries did we succeed in getting into contact with the family with whom Joachim stayed and the repeated message from their side was that they could reveal nothing, but that the situation had turned out very bad and that we had to come to Cuba as soon as possible.

At the same time all contacts to the responsible authorities turned out negatively, and worst of all we really felt nobody in Havana dared take contact to the police. Only after continued pressure from our side on the Cuban embassy in Copenhagen, things suddenly changed and the sad information was given to us by our local police on the evening of the 6th of April.

We are, however, 100% convinced that had we not made use of our own contact and had we not continued our pressure on the embassy in Copenhagen, we might have faced a situation where Joachim would have been declared a missing person, a way out the Cuban authorities have been accused of applying in similar cases.

Unlike in many other places in the world where one has to worry about criminals on the street; in the case of Cuba one has to worry about a criminal government that has no respect for human life.  This is what the promoters of tourist travel to Cuba won't tell you about crime on the island.