Nice and tidy

There is an excellent article in the Spanish daily ABC today regarding the meeting in Havana of the Non-Aligned Movement.

According to correspondent Mercedes Gallego, the lucky international delegates enjoying the late Cuban summer will be protected from witnessing some of the less savoury aspects of life under the Castro regime.

Ms Gallego reports on a massive cleaning up of the capital, including painting over the facades of buildings along Fifth Avenue, the street that leads to the convention centre where most of the meetings are being held. The centre has also been renovated for the occasion.

She says this lavado de cara also includes removing from Havana streets supposedly hundreds of beggars, drunks, prostitutes and those assorted hustlers that sell everything from fake Cohiba cigars to counterfeit antiques.

As well, she says, about 100 political prisoners have been shipped from the Combinado del Este prison to another maximum security facility on the road to the province of Camaguey – far from the festivities in the capital.

Nice and tidy ... just like the regime.