In the midst of an almost complete blackout in Havana’s Vedado, the hotel Grand Aston Havana it seemed to have fallen from another world, less precarious and underdeveloped. All its lamps, windows, spotlights, reflectors and even humble light bulbs were at their maximum capacity, without paying attention to the ominous news reports from the Electric Union.
Energy austerity is not an issue that interests the directors of the Gran Aston, located on Calle 1 y D, very close to Avenida del Malecón. “The newest and most elegant” hotel in the city, according to its website, does not seem to bother the Cuban government too much either, which is juggling to attract investment from foreign companies in the tourism sector.
It is not the first time that hotels and state establishments seem to enjoy a special “isolation” in the cities of the Island, safe from power cuts, the misery of the people, police repression, hunger and the protests caused by the set of these factors.
The same day that the Grand Aston cast its luminous aura over the darkened capital, Havanans contemplated the sinister glow of the fire at the Havana Supertanker Base.
It is not the first time that hotels and state establishments seem to enjoy a special “isolation” in the cities of the Island.
Also during that day, the Antonio Guiteras thermoelectric plant announced its umpteenth exit from the National Electric System, under the pretext of not having “sufficient water supply” and no fuel, while an acid and dark downpour bathed the city’s rooftops.
The “salting” that, according to the Government, torments the Cuban people does not end there. A few days before the explosion in Matanzas, the Minister of the Economy formally declared war on informal currency exchange and provoked the usual question in the people: “If we don’t have electricity, food, well-being or a future, what are they doing with our Dollars?”
The neighbors who looked at the incandescent tower of the Grand Aston had to think that, perhaps, the hotel was the only place in Havana where those questions referred to a distant reality.
Not surprisingly, the directors warn that whoever can afford a room at the Grand Aston will access “a refuge where they can relax and recharge, while experiencing its glamour.”
The price of the only Eden of light in Havana ranges between 179 and 244 dollars a night, tropical and truly luxurious, not like the rest of the Havanans.
The Grand Aston, as seen in the photograph, scandalously happy on a Cuba darkened by death, exile and the poor living of its citizens, is the most eloquent symbol of how the country’s darkness feeds government business.
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