Saturday, January 17, 2015

Cuba - Police state or tourist haven? Depends who you talk to

Cuba: Police state or tourist haven? Depends who you talk to
SPECIAL TO THE MIAMI HERALD
01/16/2015 6:35 PM 01/16/2015 9:11 PM

HAVANA
At midnight on the streets of this crumbling capital, tipsy tourists
walk down dark alleys with cameras dangling from their necks that might
be worth six months' salary to a local Cuban. Yet by many accounts those
innocents abroad are probably safer here than on almost any other street
in the Caribbean.

Living in a communist police state has dramatic downsides — paranoia,
suspicion, fear, unjust imprisonment. But it also makes the island
unique in the region: virtually free from the violent crime that plagues
much of the Americas.

As U.S. travelers increasingly flock to the island, attracted by its
time-warp scenery of 1950s Fords and colonial architecture, safety might
be one of its less-flashy selling points.

Cuba doesn't report crime statistics and state-run media rarely cover
crime, but the meager data that exists paints a picture that sets Cuba
apart.

The country had 477 homicides in 2012 or a rate of 4.2 per 100,000
people, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
That's the third lowest homicide rate in the hemisphere after Canada and
Chile, and it's dramatically lower than its neighbors. Jamaica, for
example, had a homicide rate of 39.3 per 100,000, followed by the
Bahamas with 29.8 and Puerto Rico with 26.5. Mainland United States, by
comparison, had a rate of 4.7 homicides per 100,000.

Monica Petruzzelli, 21, was in Cuba with classmates from California's
Chapman University working on a documentary about local artists. She
said she had spent the previous night wandering around old Havana
snapping pictures and bar hopping.

"I felt the same as if I had been walking in the United States," she
said. "I felt very safe. Of course the guys weren't tame, they were
harassing and harassing, but it was the same way in Chile."

The U.S. State Department's Bureau of Diplomatic Security says violent
crime isn't common in Cuba, but "evidence continues to suggest that
petty theft and minor crimes remain a problem.... American travelers are
perceived to be wealthy and are, thus, often the target of these types
of crimes."

In a country without many first-world perks — like reliable Internet
access or electricity — locals take pride in the island's safety. Yoel
Monsalve, a cab driver in Havana, said his neighborhood, San Miguel, is
considered one of the rougher ones in the city.

"If you walked around with a camera at two in the morning you might —
just might — get robbed, but I really doubt it," he said. "In all my
life I've never heard of a kidnapping here, for example. It just doesn't
happen."

But others are more skeptical about Cuba's squeaky-clean image.

Evis Leyva, 39, has been homeless since he sold his residence in 2006
with the hopes of putting together enough money to go to the United
States. He says the smugglers he hired to make the trip ripped him off
and he's been living in a derelict building ever since.

He says he hears about thefts and muggings on the streets but they never
make the press.

"The only time you ever see crime in the paper is when it has gotten so
big they can't cover it up any more," he said.

As the online news site Havana Times wrote in 2012, local newspapers
don't have "a crime page and nothing is published about crime,
robberies, rapes or murders. Nothing was even written when 33 patients
starved to death in a Havana psychiatric hospital."

A search of the archives of Granma and Juventud Rebelde, Cuba's two
largest newspapers, had only two mentions of local homicides in the past
three years. In one case, from June 2014, the Interior Ministry reported
that four bodies had been discovered in western Cuba. The article said
the men had been killed in connection with a plan to flee the country
and that six people had been detained.

Another case, also from last year, said the state was pressing charges
against individuals who had killed 11 and poisoned 99 with illegal
moonshine made from alcohol stolen from the pharmacy at the University
of Havana.

"The official narrative leaves no room for violence," said Julia Cooke,
who spent five years living in Cuba and researching her book The Other
Side of Paradise — Life in the New Cuba. Even so, the island's radio
bemba, or gossip grapevine, sometimes carried reports of violence.

"I think when poverty and heat and desperation and lack of information
converge it can induce violence in the most calm of people," she said.
"That I heard about it as infrequently as I did is a testament to Cuba's
overall safety."

There are multiple theories about why the country is an outlier when it
comes to violence. Even before the 1959 revolution gun ownership was
restricted and the country still has one of the lowest civilian
firearm-ownership rates in the world. (In fact, 71.8 percent of all
Cuban homicides in 2010 were committed with knives, according to the
Small Arms Survey research group in Geneva.) In addition, the island's
powerful Committees for the Defense of the Revolution, essentially
aggressive neighborhood watch programs, are thought to play a role in
social control. Others have suggested that organized crime is firmly in
the hands of government, which has kept a lid on violence.

Tourists — one of the few sources of hard currency for the government —
have an added layer of protection, as police come down particularly hard
on crimes against them.

"Cubans know that tourism is essential to the national economy," Cooke
said. "If you hassle a tourist you are more likely to get in bigger
trouble than if you hassle another Cuban."

Tom Popper, the president of Insight Cuba, which has taken about 10,000
U.S. travelers to the island over the last decade, said safety will be
one of Cuba's silver bullets as it opens up to American travelers.

"Families can bring their children and if you're a female you can walk
around at night without being worried; there's not a whole lot to be
concerned about," he said. "Tourism is going to take off as word gets
out that it's one of the safest places to visit —particularly since the
world is in such tumult right now."

Source: Cuba: Police state or tourist haven? Depends who you talk to |
The Miami Herald -
http://www.miamiherald.com/news/nation-world/world/americas/cuba/article7039331.html

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