The Independent ran a story yesterday about a mysterious plan to build an American-style theme park in Cuba replete with iconic attractions including Cayo Castro, Revolutionary Road and Hemingway’s Hideaway.
Designed as the second-largest theme park in the world, the project’s sponsors and Cuban partners were undisclosed.
A popular meme in the recent wave of media coverage about Cuba is the angst over the negative changes anticipated by hoards of bloated American tourists invading Cuba. The Independent’s article is clearly playing on this aspect of Cuba’s emergence from isolation. Against the backdrop of several high-profile deals between US hotel companies and Cuban partners, the headline contains a hint of truth.
We made inquiries about the veracity of the story and found no confirming sources – it’s an April Fools joke. Several US media outlets covered the story, but apparently did not play along with the joke. None made reference to the footnote or the farcical opening date. After all, jokes need punchlines. Or is this a case of April Fools content aggregation?
InCuba Today (A Miami Herald entity)
