Havana (AFP)

Finally, Lazaro was able to go fishing, Dayli swim and Fernando run along the Malecon, the famous coastal boulevard of Havana: the Cuban capital began its deconfinement on Friday, allowing its inhabitants to enjoy the sea, but foreign tourists will have to wait .

"We are happy, because that's what we all love: fishing," said AFP Lazaro Castillo, 55, who came to try his luck with his fishing rod.

Coming with five friends who share the same hobby, this professional driver landed at dawn on the Malecon - meeting place for all Havanese - with his equipment, not to mention his mask on the face, which remains mandatory , as well as a chlorine-based solution for disinfecting hands.

"We are all there, happy, but respecting the rules that have been set," he explains.

After three months of confinement where the beaches were closed and fishing prohibited, Lazaro felt nostalgic for the sea.

He came there sometimes "with my dog, we stopped there and we looked at the sea, it's an old people's habit", he laughs.

Havana, city of two million inhabitants, is the last in the country to start its deconfinement, being considered as the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic.

- "My first day of freedom!" -

If the pandemic was declared under control by the communist authorities, with a total Friday of 2,361 cases including 86 deaths, caution remains in order.

The island of 11.2 million inhabitants keeps its borders closed at least until August 1, only the cayos, a string of paradisiac islands along its territory, being since Wednesday open to foreign tourists.

"Happy July 3, because all Cuba is entering the post-Covid 19 stage. May happiness not make us forget responsibility," President Miguel Diaz-Canel tweeted on Friday.

The deconfinement is done little by little, in three phases.

In the first (which concerns Havana and the neighboring province of Matanzas, the rest of the country entering phase two on Friday), the restaurants can only be filled to 30 to 50% of their capacity and the buses carry a limited number of passengers. On the beach, wearing a mask is compulsory.

Not enough to discourage Deyli Dacerda, 31 years old and mother of two girls: "It's my first day of freedom!", She rejoices.

"We Cubans need summer, heat, the sea." His impression after taking a dip? "It's great! I've already been to swim and I'm going to go back, and on Monday I'm coming back with my daughters".

Like her, around 200 people rushed Friday to the "Playita 16", west of Havana, to enjoy it after three months of abstinence and while a summer heat reigns over the capital.

- Economic consequences -

For Carlos Alberto Mendez, 32, actor and amateur diver, this is an opportunity to share a few beers with his friends. "It's really great, you imagine, it's been so long since we've been locked up!".

The sea, "it is a space of freedom and so pleasant", he philosophizes.

A few meters from the beach, Daniel Rodriguez, manager of the state cafeteria "El Arrecife", complains of the economic consequences of the pandemic: "Here before we sold for 1,700 CUC (equivalent to 1,700 dollars, note) per day , today we barely reach 500 ".

Faced with a strengthening of the American embargo in force since 1962 and forced to reduce its imports by 75% in the first quarter, due to the lack of tourism currencies to pay them, the country sees shortages worsen.

Friday, many Cubans were not enjoying the sea on this first day of deconfinement because they had to queue for hours in front of the supermarkets.

"Everything I fish here, I put in the freezer, because of the situation we are going through," explains Lazaro the fisherman.

Fernando Garcia, a 44-year-old tourism employee, wants to be optimistic: "If things get better", Havana will be able to open up "very soon to international tourism".

Coming to jog on the Malecon, he says he feels "overflowing joy": "The sea brings us freshness, purifies us, makes us happy".

© 2020 AFP