With the collapse of the Soviet Union and its annual subsidy of $4.4 billion to Cuba’s economy in 1991, Fidel Castro and fellow Communists suddenly reversed their condemnation of foreign capitalist investors and luxury tourism to embrace both. The Communist state also opened government-owned resorts for foreign tourists like this one, Arenas Doradas, located on Varadero Beach. Like most hotels, Arenas Doradas was staffed by a surplus of Cuban professionals who went from working as scientists and medical doctors to waiting tables and tending bar because these jobs offered far higher pay and because the government also wanted to ensure educated citizens’ political loyalty through a system of material rewards. Most Cubans deeply resented these hotels and resorts because the government barred them from entering or staying there overnight, a policy Cubans called “tourist apartheid” until Raúl Castro (allegedly) ended the ban in 2008 as part of a new package of reforms.
