Versión Español
Spanish.- If a tourist faces a health emergency during their vacation in Cuba, they will experience the neglect hidden in the chosen tourist destination, and if they die, they will face the negligence of the Castro regime. The disappearance of the body of a Canadian tourist who died on the island a month ago, after suffering a heart attack, confirms the lack of guarantees for travelers on the island.
Nobody knows where the remains of Faraj Allah Jarjou, the Canadian resident of Syrian origin, 68, who died while swimming in Varadero, are. His family paid $18,000 to repatriate him, submitted the required documents, but the dictatorship handed them a coffin with the body of a young Russian with tattoos and abundant hair.
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“Where is my father?” ask his children in Montreal. For now, his body is lost. That’s the bitter reality after his dramatic death at the luxury facilities of the Meliá Hotel in Varadero. Surprisingly, there were no lifeguards near the beach, nor medical personnel, so he remained on the sand for about eight hours.
The family has Jarjou’s passport and death certificate but still has no clues about the whereabouts of the victim. “Authorities must know that this is not a T-shirt or something sent by Amazon,” they retort.
Tourism on the Decline
The disappearance of the Canadian tourist’s body has a significant impact on the prospects of the Castro regime to increase foreign visits to the island.
So far, the figures for those choosing to spend their vacations in Cuba have been disappointing. According to Cuba’s National Office of Statistics and Information (ONEI), the nation counted 809,238 international visitors in the first quarter of the year. However, this figure only represents 25% of the annual target estimated by the administration of Miguel Díaz-Canel.
In the case of Canada, the drop is staggering. Between January and March, 399,272 travelers arrived from Toronto and Quebec, but the figure is weak, considering that on average reports amounted to 1.3 million vacationers three years ago.
Recently, two Canadian tourists, Michele and Jessy Revivo, confirmed to the CityNews network the poor condition of the Meliá Marina hotel in Varadero, where they stayed with their two children in January.
“We couldn’t believe how bad it was. There were what looked like bloodstains on the sheets, the rooms were dirty, and the bathroom didn’t work,” they pointed out.
The balance increasingly distances the dictatorship from recovering the 4.5 million visitors who were landing before the pandemic. However, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodríguez tries to mitigate international pressure over the Canadian tourist case by disclosing a conversation with his counterpart, Melanie Joly, where he described what happened to the remains as an “unfortunate incident.” “I conveyed apologies and heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of the deceased,” he said.
Conversé telefónicamente con Canciller @melaniejoly por desafortunado incidente en traslado de restos de ciudadano de Canadá fallecido en Cuba
Autoridades cubanas investigan hecho para esclarecerlo. Trasladé disculpas y sentidas condolencias a familiares y allegados de fallecido https://t.co/3wDUlZa2W3
— Bruno Rodríguez P (@BrunoRguezP) April 24, 2024
Deadly Holidays
Now, the case of the Canadian tourist is just one link in the chain of visitors whose vacations end in a deadly episode.
The robbery and subsequent murder in December of a Frenchman in a building located between Industria and Virtudes streets, in Central Havana, are still under investigation along with that of a German tourist found dead in an apartment in building 201 on Calle O, corner Humboldt, where he was staying in April.
A strong smell from the building raised suspicions. “When they put the canine technician to detect the trail, three dogs marked Las Vegas Cabaret,” located a block away, the press revealed about this latest record.
However, Cuban infrastructure neglect also causes the deaths of foreign visitors on the island, such as Spanish citizen Cristina López-Cerón Ugarte, 29, who died in the explosion at the Saratoga Hotel in Havana, while her boyfriend, César Román Santalla, was seriously injured and required surgery after the accident.
Even traveling the country by bus represents a risk when spending vacations in Cuba. In fact, two Argentines lost their lives at kilometer 25 of the Guantánamo-Baracoa highway, in La Herradura hill, along with five other passengers when returning to Havana.
