Last week we told you about an initiative among several U.S. Senators to lift the ban on U.S. tourism to Cuba. While some — both on the Cuban side and the U.S. side — might see this as a good thing for the island, Spain’s El País reports (and editorializes) that the Cuban government is proceeding with caution:

Authorities in Havana are looking anxiously at the possibility that the U.S. might lift the travel ban that impedes American tourists from visiting Cuba “too soon”. On the one hand this is desired and seen as a salvation in these times of crisis, but on the other, the end of the banning of U.S. tourism is perceived as a challenge, with a high potential for destabilizing the political and idealogical landscape, according to observers and diplomats.

To provide perspective on what this major change in U.S.-Cuba relations could mean to prolongation of Cuba as we know it today, El País points to statements made by Cuban politician Armando Hart, who warned against the effects of a lifting of the embargo on Cuban society:

If he [Obama] keeps his promise [of lifting the embargo], a new age of idealogical combat between the Cuban revolution and imperialism will be born. Within it, the design of a new theoretical and propagandistic concept around our ideas and their origin will be needed…a broad migration towards distinct objectives could come upon us and we need to culturally prepare ourselves for that.”

I think this pretty much sums up the overall point: this isn’t just about welcoming dollars into the Cuban economy via American tourism, but rather what that will actually mean to Cuba: an influx of everything the revolution has been trying to combat all these years. American tourism is a demonstration of rampant consumerism which is capitalism at its maximum expression, and that flies in the face of the Cuban way of life. Sure, it’s been filtering through for years now via European tourism, but this sudden aperture is bound to push communist leaders on the island to reconsider the way the reconcile the ideals they wish their people to live by and the fact that the enemy is coming in and leaving a piece of their culture of consumption on the island.

What do you think? Will U.S. tourism to Cuba radically change Cuban society? How will leaders deal with this? What will Cuba look like after, say, 20 years of U.S. tourism to the island? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Via / El País