Cuba, a popular Caribbean cruise destination

Photo: Jose M. Correa

More than 800,000 cruise passengers visited Cuba last year, a figure that reaffirms the sustained growth of this sector. A total of 17 international cruise lines, with some 25 ships, currently operate in the country, including some of the most recognized worldwide, such as Carnival Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean Cruise Line.

The exponential growth of this type of tourism is synonymous with its popularity, as was highlighted at the end of the third quarter of 2018 by Cruise Critic, the leading website for online cruise reviews, which for the first time reported Havana as the top-rated Western Caribbean and Riviera Maya destination, based on consumer reviews.

Repeated press reports indicate that representatives of several cruise companies worldwide appreciate Cuba’s exceptional character as a tourist destination, a very important basis for its increased inclusion in their itineraries.

Thus, Regent Seven Seas Cruises, the only U.S. luxury cruise line authorized to offer trips to this archipelago, announced more visits during 2019 and 2020.

In the same period, Carnival Cruise Line announced it had added 23 more routes with stops in Havana, and revealed that next year it would open routes from New York, Norfolk, Virginia, and Port Canaveral, Florida.

Likewise, Silversea Cruises is set to include a route from the United States before the end of February.

Many cruise passengers come from the United States, and the number could be higher, if it weren’t for the measures adopted by their government last June, which make travel between the two countries difficult and reinforce the economic, commercial and financial blockade against Cuba.

Among the recognized attributes of the island are its cultural, patrimonial and environmental riches, as well as its safety.

The investments being made to support the development of the cruise industry in Cuba include the construction of four cruise terminals in Havana by 2024. •

MARITIME ADMINISTRATION REPORT ON CRUISE SHIP NOT AUTHORIZED TO DOCK

Since the afternoon of February 15, international media and social networks have been circulating speculations regarding a cruise ship that was not authorized to dock in the port of Havana.

The Maritime Administration of Cuba clarifies that the Grand Classica ship, operated by the Bahamas Paradise company, did not dock in the port of Havana on its first visit to Cuba because it had unilaterally modified the initially agreed activity, and did not meet the established information accuracy requirements and procedural deadlines. Authorities regret this incident and hold the operators responsible for the consequences.

Tens of thousands of passengers arrive every year to Cuba without difficulties, aboard ships of the world’s leading cruise companies and the United States, showing preferences for Cuban destinations.

Neither bombs nor permanent aggression will be enough to break hope

Photo: José Manuel Correa

The lords of war, which is the horror of the peoples, are indifferent to children, women and men; the human being. It is strange for them to become sensitive and end it in the face of so many deaths; that is why they continue to agonize what is not theirs, what is alive.
The more than seven decades of the Palestinian people resisting the onslaught of Zionist colonialism are not enough; nor are the lives taken from more than 42,000 people since October 2023. The offensive continues, and it hurts.
That is why, aware that solidarity knows no decoys or borders, and that to fight for Palestine is also to fight for humanity, a representation of the Cuban people marched through the streets of Havana, from the Martí Forge to the Anti-imperialist Tribune.
“Our solidarity and sensitivity with just causes summon us to the most anti-imperialist of the tribunes, to repudiate the massacre being committed against the people of Palestine and which is also intensifying against Lebanon, Syria and Yemen,” expressed Meyvis Estévez Echevarría, first secretary of the National Committee of the Union of Young Communists.
In view of the vile scenario experienced by the Palestinian people, she affirmed that it is not a question of figures, that they are entire families martyred, disappeared, and that every time a person from that land is murdered, the shame of the world also dies.
“This march of thousands of Cubans, and the rallies that have been held in the country during these days, honor each life taken by Israel; in addition, it reaffirms the political will and commitment of the Cuban State with peace, justice and respect for national sovereignty,” highlighted Meyvis Estévez.
The march was led by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, accompanied by members of the Political Bureau, Esteban Lazo Hernández, president of the National Assembly of People’s Power and the Council of State, and Manuel Marrero Cruz, prime minister, as well as other leaders and representatives of political and mass organizations.

Tribute to the first day of freedom

Photo: Santiago Martí 

The impetus of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and his determination on that October 10, 1868, when he assured that “Cuba can no longer belong to a power,” still shake.
When commemorating the 156th anniversary of the beginning of our only Revolution, in a solemn way, in the patrimonial cemetery of Santa Ifigenia, a representation of the people of Santiago de Cuba gathered for the traditional tribute to the Father of the Homeland and the National Hero.
Floral offerings on behalf of Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Cuban Revolution; Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic; Esteban Lazo Hernández, head of the Parliament; and the people of Cuba accompanied the tribute at the José Martí Mausoleum.
Another offering, on behalf of the Cuban people, was placed at the tomb of Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, by students of the Camilo Cienfuegos Military School and cadets of the José Maceo Inter-arms School of the Hero City.
Likewise, from the Sacred Altar of the Homeland, the former La Demajagua sugar mill -currently a National Monument and Museum Park-, people from several generations of inhabitants from Grandma honored the founding date of the Cuban nation, which took place in that emblematic site.
There, where Céspedes, along with other patriots and their recently freed slaves, began the road to emancipation, they recalled the epic passages written that historic morning, in the presence of the Commander of the Revolution Ramiro ValdMenéndez, deputy prime minister, and the highest authorities of the Party and the Government in the province.
According to CNC TV, on the occasion, Javier Vega Leyva, president of the branch of the Union of Historians of Cuba in the territory, praised the altruism of Céspedes and the men who, together with him, marked the beginning of the road to freedom, while he called on the new generations to be imbued with the history that began to be woven in La Demajagua, with the aim of applying it in their daily actions.
The national call for the Cuban Culture Day was also presented, which will have as its most relevant event the celebration of the 30th edition of the Cuban Festivity, from October 17 to 20.

The brave and the cowards, The organization of Cuban artists and writers: Statement

Photo: Alberto Lescay 

Once again they want to divide us, to confuse us, to subdue us. The Cuban intelligentsia is heir to a solid patriotic and cultural tradition committed to social justice, educated in study, but also in the incomparable experiences of an authentic and victorious Revolution, harassed by U.S. imperialism.
Cuban culture was forged in the manigua, in the anti-Machadist struggle, in the Sierra and in the Llano, in the Girón and in literacy, in military and civil internationalism, in the heroic construction of a new world. Difficult times define peoples, and mark the character of people.
To be brave, when sailing in turbulent waters, is not to cling to the “impossible,” to shout that the ship may sink; it is to face the storm, to hold the rudder tightly while the wind and the water hit the face, and the ground leaves the feet.
To be brave, when the nation is in danger, is to face the enemy, to fight, and simultaneously, to build, to repair, to unite, to create. “Others will propagate vices,” wrote José Martí, “or dissimulate them: we like to propagate virtues.” Cowards claim the right to be tired, to think about themselves (not for themselves), to “freedom of speech,” to repeat what the enemy, apparently stronger, whispers. They invoke supposed constitutional rights to betray. They have been colonized, and enthusiastically defend the opinions and interests of their colonizers.
Their attitude is more abject if they know history and know that their main line has been, since the 19th century, the relationship between imperialism and a Homeland born of the anti-colonial and anti-imperialist Revolution; it is more vile if they have ever read Martí, Maceo, Mella, Guiteras, Martínez Villena, Roig de Leuchsenring, Fernando Ortiz, Che Guevara, Fidel.
What do they pretend, what do they expect, are not these small-minded people so ignorant to believe that freedom is in submission to the imperial master; the ephemeral applause of their mentors will fade away, there is no possible glory nor work that lasts, in apostasy.
The individual freedom we enjoy to create, to express our opinions, to think -which was possible thanks to the Revolution-, cannot be exercised to restrict the freedom of the people, and reduce or tie up national independence.
The legitimate diversity of styles, of perspectives, of looks; the doubts and certainties of our creators, the committed and critical thinking, spring from a common source: the Revolution.  “The proud man believes that the earth was made to serve him as a pedestal -Martí also wrote- because he has an easy pen or a colorful word, and he accuses his native republic of being incapable and irremediable.”
We will not allow the arrogant and cowards to recode the symbols and steal our words, to disguise themselves as revolutionaries, to surrender the country, their dreams, to cancel our brief and brave history of struggles. Freedom in Cuba is the path of all: it is not achieved by those who pursue it only for themselves.
José Martí’s Centennial Generation bequeathed us a free, more just Homeland; Fidel’s Centennial Generation will defend that freedom, will extend it; it will leap over the false impossibilities to open new paths to justice. Cuban writers and artists will not allow ourselves to be confused and divided, we will never accept submission.