Who could imagine that the distant Germany would have an island in the Caribbean Sea that would be part of its territory, if for more incredible it seems it was a gift of good will of Fidel Castro in a visit made to the extinct East Germany in the month of June from 1972.
Castro granted Cayo Blanco Island, located in the Gulf of Cazones, southwest of the famous Bay of Pigs, later called Ernst Thälmann Island in honor of the former leader of the Communist Party of Germany, imprisoned and executed by Nazism in 1944.
But this gift was not so disinterested as, as compensation, Cuba received 6% of the share of the refined sugar world market, which until then corresponded to the state company of the GDR Nordsternzucker VEB Trobi. Even after the collapse of the Eastern Bloc, Cuba continued to benefit from this quota, allowing the country to offer sugar to the European market.
In this photo we can appreciate the moment in which Castro shows a map of Cuba and communicates to his hosts the exact location of the island given by the
Two months later, the ambassador of the GDR in Cuba inaugurated a four-meter-high bust of communist leader Ernst Thälmann on the new German island, facing the sea. Currently the bust does not exist, was destroyed after the passage of Hurricane Mitch in 1998.
After the reunification of Germany in 1992, the document that was signed does not name the island and although in 2001 a German magazine put the issue on the table, the German communist government that Fidel Castro did not make the official transfer of the territory, which was simply a symbolic act, for which the island continues to belong to Cuba and thus the dream of some Germans to vacation on these beautiful Caribbean beaches was broken.
We will be left with the question of what would have happened if the Germans had taken possession of the place, I hope it has been to your liking until the next.
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