End of Cuba’s ‘tourist apartheid’ leaves vast racial divide – Cuba has lifted the ban that kept locals from tourist hotels, but a trip to Varadero showed the only Cubans at the resorts were outside, begging for handouts. From: miamiherald.com

Edis is accustomed to getting chased off tourist beaches.

Looking to make money braiding tourists’ hair on Varadero, she parks herself on a patch of sand between tourist hotels to avoid trespassing. Then she gives security guards a knowing nod that seals their illegal pact: For every $30 she earns, a guard will get six.

”They like to keep the Cubans and the tourists separate,” Edis explains. “I have been taken to jail four times. I don’t consider myself to be a criminal. I am just struggling to live.”

Shortly after becoming Cuba’s leader three months ago, Raúl Castro ruled that locals could stay at tourist hotels and visit exclusive beaches — ending a long-standing policy that Cubans found inherently unfair, never mind unconstitutional. Heralded as the end of ”tourist apartheid,” the measure was the first in a series of steps Castro took to address Cubans’ biggest grievances.”*

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