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Neither sun nor tobacco nor rum. The unusual tourist campaign launched by the Cuban government in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic has been a complete fiasco. "As of midnight today, no foreigner will be able to enter the national territory, only resident Cuban citizens will be able to do so," the new prime minister, Manuel Marrero, announced Monday night (early in Spain). Precisely the former Minister of Tourism was credited with the surprising advertising campaign that he was betting until a few days ago to keep open at all costs an industry essential for the economic survival of the revolution.

The almost 10,000 tourists (6,000 in the capital) who are already on the island will remain in hotels in isolation. Those who reside in private homes will be transferred to hotels.

Radical measures go further and include Cubans themselves. "Residents in the country arriving from today will be transferred to isolation centers, where they will remain for 14 days," added Marrero. It is, in principle, the facilities of the so-called popular camping, where Cubans go on vacation under the umbrella of the State, as well as educational centers.

To measure the scope of the measure, it is enough to look at the migration statistics of the last day: 783 foreign tourists arrived, 460 Cuban emigrants and 3,460 residents on the island. Cubans will also not be able to travel abroad, thus revoking one of Raúl Castro's most applauded measures by the population, who for several decades could only leave Cuba with state permission. An initiative that in recent months was also used against dissidents, artists and opponents, punished for not traveling abroad as punishment for their activities.

"These are difficult times that demand the unity of Cubans," recalled the prime minister, words that the Caribbean have heard repeatedly in the last six decades.

The measures are of "strict compliance", according to Marrero, who underlined the lack of discipline of many Cubans with the measures previously taken. Classes were also suspended for one month and inter-provincial travel prohibited, including car rental.

The rest of the measures are very similar to those already taken in a large part of Latin America, with some revolutionary peculiarity: a meter of distance between people in shops, increased home sales, elimination of sales in "pipes" ( tank trucks) and reinforcement of the ration book. The Police, already very present in the streets of the country, will be reinforced and the different religious cults should limit "as much as possible" the concentrations.

So far the cases of covid-19 detected on the island have risen to 40, to which must be added 1,400 people who are in isolation. The only fatality is a 61-year-old Cuban tourist.

"There can be no panic or overconfidence," ordered President Miguel Díaz-Canel.

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