Karel Poort recalls the frantic minutes when he ran out of his room, with his Nikon F301 in hand
Juan Carlos Espinosa/EFE, La Habana, 4 August 2024 — During his vacation in Cuba, the Dutch photographer Karel Poort began to take photos of a demonstration outside his hotel without knowing that, some time later, they would become some of the most iconic images of the Maleconazo, the first major anti-government protest since 1959, which marks its 30th anniversary this Monday.
In his first interview for these events, granted to EFE, Poort recalls the frantic minutes when he ran out of his room, with his Nikon F301 in hand, after hearing a riot on the street. It was the afternoon of August 5, 1994 in the central Galiano Street.
“I was in the shower and I heard people screaming and ringing their bicycle bells on the street. I immediately took my camera, an extra roll of film and ran down the stairs,” says this 78-year-old photographer.
“I was in the shower and I heard people screaming and ringing their bicycle bells on the street”
The tumult led him to the Deauville hotel, about 400 meters from his hotel and right in front of the Havana Malecón. There, as he recalls, people shouted at the top of their lungs: “Cuba yes, Castro no!” and “Freedom!”
Poort, who at that time worked as a photographer and freelance sound engineer on Dutch television, didn’t know it, but the outburst was the result of weeks of tension.
On July 13, the ’13 de Marzo’ tugboat* sank after its occupants hijacked it to emigrate to the United States. Thirty-seven people died, including 10 children.
The survivors blamed the coast guard for purposefully ramming the boat, while the Cuban government said it was an accident.
In 1994, the Island was in the middle of the Special Period, the economic crisis that hit the country hard after the disappearance of the Soviet Union and the fall of the socialist bloc in Europe.
The rumor of a significant departure of people to heading to the coast of the United States led the authoritie