DOSSIER - Cuba: the Caribbean myth

On Saturday afternoons in Havana, the Malecón, the huge seafront boulevard lined with sea-sprayed buildings, is the most picturesque. Clusters of teenagers from working-class neighbourhoods of all colours gather there. Some, balancing on the jutting rocks, plunge into the refreshing waters of the Gulf of Mexico, others squabble on the low protective wall, while at the entrance to the port, a few fishermen tire out the fish in front of the Castillo del Morro, a military building constructed by the Spanish at the end of the 16th century.