MIAMI _ An inflammatory headline on the Cuban Babalu Blog denounced a major faux pas by airline JetBlue when it started commercial flights to Cuba last week: "To celebrate new Cuba flights JetBlue bakes a Che Guevara cake."
If doubts lingered as to the inclination of the post, the addendum clarifies Guevara, the Argentine Marxist revolutionary who fought with Fidel Castro during the Cuban Revolution in the 1950s, is "the terrorist mass-murderer who denounced JetBlue customers as 'hyenas fit only for extermination!'"
Below the headline is an image of a cake, complete with the JetBlue logo, Cuban flag, Cuban coffee beans _ and an image of El Che. A caption explains that the cake was in celebration of JetBlue's inaugural commercial flight to Santa Clara in central Cuba last week.
Except the cake says "Tampa International Airport," not Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport where the flight took place and the image is not from 2016 but rather December 2013 when JetBlue inaugurated charter flights to the island. The cake wasn't even commissioned by JetBlue _ it was presented to the airline by Tampa International Airport.
Oops.
That didn't stop the post from being shared 166 times on Facebook and comments, such as these:
"Well. That does it for me. No more Jet Blue!!! It's the only thing these idiots understand ... $$$$$ (sic)" from real estate broker Brenda Feria, and (seriously) "' ... The most violent element in our society is ignorance ... ' JetBlue shame on you ... tasteless cake, literally!!!" from Grisel Garcia.
JetBlue spokeswoman Elizabeth Ninomiya said the cake was presented to the airline by Tampa International Airport during the celebration of charter flights from Tampa three years ago.
"While the cake is from several years ago and was not designed by JetBlue, we do not believe the cake artist knowingly intended to make any political statements," Ninomiya said.
The actual cakes on display in Fort Lauderdale on Wednesday were a Cohiba Cigars cake, a fedora cake and a four-tier Santa Clara cake with images of Cuban coffee, dominoes, old cars and salsa dancers. No Che Guevara in sight.
The post's author, Cuban-American writer and political commentator Humberto Fontova, said he found the 2013 cake image while researching a follow-up piece to a previous blog post about JetBlue promoting Santa Clara's connections to El Che.
"When you see a cake with JetBlue on it and Che Guevara on it, it would seem to me if JetBlue had any objection to it they wouldn't use it," Fontova said. "JetBlue should thank me because they were advertising, 'Come visit the burial site of Che Guevara.' They should be happy I am helping spread their message. They should send me a check."
