As a set-piece of propaganda, the unveiling of the bronze statue of José Martí that evoked Cuba’s greatest independence hero at the moment of his death was a flop. But as a mournful scene from the closing act of the Castro brothers’ 60-year rule, the official event that took place outside Havana’s Museum of the Revolution this January spoke volumes.
Cuba considered the statue an affair of high state. It took four years of meticulous planning, and $2.5m of private US donations, to make the 17-tonne replica of the sculpture and ship it from New York, where the original has stood for over 60 years in Central Park. Raúl Castro, Cuba’s president, even went out of his way during a 2015 UN visit to personally thank New York mayor Bill de Blasio for the city’s help.
For Havana, the statue was a symbol of budding rapprochement and hope for change. When the project first launched Cuba was inundated with visiting dignitaries — from the Pope to the Rolling Stones, Karl Lagerfeld and then-US president Barack Obama. Fidelito, Fidel Castro’s eldest son, was even snapped in a selfie with Paris Hilton, visiting Cuba on a celebrity jaunt. Parades of foreign investors also trooped through Havana to scope for opportunities, flattering the sense of optimism in the air.