(Havana) A huge Cuban flag in front of the US embassy in Havana: The new construction project of the communist government, which reflects the ongoing tensions between the two countries, sparked mockery on the Internet.
The work is taking place in the “Anti-imperialist Forum”, a large square opposite the embassy, on the coastal street of Malecon, a place of great symbolic importance in Cuba.
Nee Granma, The ruling Communist Party newspaper, nor the official Cuban portal, which usually announces such initiatives with great fanfare, wrote a line about the now-unpainted new concrete structure depicting the Cuban flag.
Only the state-owned construction and maintenance company (Ecom) has given some clues on its Facebook page.
On the anti-imperialist Tribune already stands this monumental act: our flag, who was never a mercenary and on which a star shines brighter when he is alone. “
The state-owned construction and maintenance company
This tribune was built in the year 2000 in the midst of a legal and political battle in Cuba for the return of the young Elian Gonzales, whose mother died while crossing the Florida Straits with him to reach Miami, in the southeastern United States.
In 2006, the authorities planted 138 Cuban flags there, a “memorial against terrorism” inaugurated by Fidel Castro, then president of the Republic.
Criticism and mockery
The new construction has sparked criticism and ridicule on the Internet.
“What can this horror offer for monumental Cuban art? Very little. Artecubano editor Michael Jose Rodriguez, post by the National Council of Plastic Arts,” wrote on Facebook “Nothing, in fact, except for satire.”
Honestly, I don’t understand what that is. Monument, statue, canopy, giant platform?
Michael Jose Rodriguez, Editor of Artecubano, National Council of Plastic Arts publication.
“If you look at it from the back, it’s a guillotine,” Wegman Montoya said on Facebook, while Aristides criticized Pestana a flag “embedded in asphalt, solid, gray and dead.”
Relations between Cuba and the United States have been very tense in recent years, with the increase in sanctions imposed on the island by US President Donald Trump (2017-2021).
However, hope for reconciliation with the election of Joe Biden gradually faded. The new American president did not make Cuba a priority, and his administration is showing its steadfastness on the issue of human rights.
