Pictures of A lavish private dinner at Hotel Nacionalafter closing this sunday the Festival of Music Awards of Sanremo in Havana, have caused outrage on social networks.
“What you did not see (illegitimately) in Sanremo: the banquet that the communist leadership gave at the National Hotel after the event,” reads the text that accompanies the gourmet meal images posted on the reporter’s Facebook profile Yusnaby Perez.
In another post posted on Eduardito Q-riquera’s Facebook profile, you can see long tables full of plates with Premium meat and vegetables, elaborate desserts; and chefs, with the Hotel Nacional logo on their uniforms, while preparing the food or decorating the dishes.
That angry user reactions to the luxury, which contrasts with the food shortages Cubans are facing in everyday life they were not long in coming.
“And we are starving because of these miserable people who have ruined my country, your country, that of all Cubans. Miserables,” writer Rafael Vilches commented on the publication.
“The photos of one such banquet were taken from the musical event called San Remo organized by the communist dictatorship, where mediocrity competed with the workers of the sausage factory. The communist dictatorship, the real blockade,” says journalist Boris González Arenas.
Photo: Facebook Yusnaby Perez
“While there is only want and extreme misery for the people,” said Ana Belkis Ferrer García, sister of UNPACU leader and political prisoner José Daniel Ferrer.
“And Frei Betto wasn’t there?” asked Cuban-American poet and academic Jesús Barquet in a commentary on Yusnaby Pérez’s contribution, alluding to the Brazilian theologian who became the Cuban government’s adviser on nutrition education, and only before one month on national television, recommended to Cubans to fry potato skins or to use the leaves of some vegetables.
Photo: Facebook Yusnaby Perez
Personally organized by the Cuban First Lady Lis Cuesta Peraza, the San Remo Music Awards Festival was seen as an attempt to attract visitors and reactivate the tourism sector in Cuba, weakened by the pandemic; and at the same time, to brighten the image of the Cuban government following the repression and imprisonment following the July 11 social outburst.
It’s been mired in controversy for months, as Several international artists such as Kalimba and the duo Andy and Lucas canceled their participationunder the pressure of public opinion.
“I will never support a dictatorship and I will always be for freedom,” declared the Spanish singer Alex Ubagoanother of those who distanced themselves from the event after his attendance became public knowledge.
Holding the San Remo Festival in Havana then became a crusade for the ruling party in Cuba. The Granma newspaper claimed the cancellations were part of an operation called “music terrorism against Cuba”.
The organizers finally confirmed that the festival would take place despite the controversy and spate of cancellations.
The Cuban First Lady and visible head of the festival organization, who had a controversial appearance on Twitter, rated the event, which finally took place from April 5th to 10th, as a political victory.
“But they didn’t take advantage of the truce? So, I also tell you that #CubaVive and its revolution,” Cuesta Peraza wrote on the social network, sharing an image to celebrate the San Remo Music Awards, where He mocked those who chose not to attend in order to distance themselves from the regime.