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.

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.”*

Stumble it! | |