Like many other Galicians, Alberto Nunez Feijoo seems to have come to Havana for economic reasons. This conservative politician, president of the regional government of the Spanish region of Galicia, came to visit Cuba in the second decade of the century, a hundred years after the time when the grandparents of those governed by him migrated to Cuba in search of a job.
For that reason he traveled to Havana with his conselleiro (minister) of Economy and Industry, Francisco Conde, who will remain in Havana a day longer than his boss “to meet with several Cuban officials in the areas of agriculture, industry, energy and mining ” Diary of Galicia told its readers.
Furthermore, Feijoo landed escorted by twenty entrepreneurs in a country that is sending abroad signals openness to foreign capital and its carriers.
But the crisis has had an effect on the Spanish-Cuban economic relations. At least in tourism, the number of Spanish visitors has fallen by about 44% in the past six years.
Cuba has always been a stronghold for the Spanish market economy abroad. And the Galician President was explicit: Núñez Feijoo believe his people should “be present in this new scenario of updating economic policies.”
He even made the gesture of saying “update” as the Cuban officials call it, instead of using the word “reform.”
Nunez Feijoo gave some details of what he heard from the lips of the leaders of the island and what he thinks. “Cuba is working on a new industrial policy, a new openness of its economy, a new update of its production and business systems, and therefore, we must be here.”
“Spain is undoubtedly the reference country of Cuba in Europe; it is one of the two or three major countries investing in Cuba and I think, in the future, Spain can happen to be probably the first or second country reference for the Cuban economy, ” Nunez Feijoo told the media.
Spain was in Cuba in the first wave of foreign investment and seems poised to return, while the crisis may have taken its momentum.
And Nunez Feijoo has been treated in style: although he is the head of government of an autonomous region (equivalent to governor) he was received by Cuban president Raul Castro and First Vice President Miguel Diaz-Canel. Besides he had a working meeting with the Minister of Foreign Investment and Trade, Rodrigo Malmierca, who will officiate in the presentation due on the Special Zone of Mariel.
In addition, he met the Minister of Culture, Rafael Bernal and Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez.
The public agenda of his visit was full of cultural events: from a tour of Old Havana with Eusebio Leal as a guide to the exhibition (pre-release) of Menique, the first Cuban 3D animated feature film. In addition to economic issues, the main issue was social: the union of the 38 Galician associations on the island, bringing together 40 thousand of his countrymen.
The presence of Nuñez Feijoo in Havana is an almost historical event. He is the first leader of the Popular Party (ruling) visiting Cuba after the 2011 elections.
Since then, relations between Havana and Madrid have cooled, compared with the period of the government of the Spanish Socialist Party, with almost annual visits to Cuba on former foreign minister Miguel Angel Moratinos, who was also received by Raul Castro himself.
Good understanding seems to have gone under when the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Spain, José Manuel García-Margallo said that he wouldn’t visit Cuba unless he was allowed to meet with dissidents. In response, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the island reminded him that no one had invited him to Havana.
The presence of emigrants from Galicia in Cuba is iconic: for Cubans, “Galician” is synonymous with Spanish. In addition, the father of Fidel and Raul Castro was born in that region. No wonder, Nuñez Feijoo said in Havana: “Coming to Cuba is the recognition and reunion, not just with a brother country, but with the family.”
That wasn’t only a formality: Núnez Feijoo has a uncle living in Cuba.
Author
Javier Ortiz
