Cubans have a variety of expressions to describe the government’s secrecy, its repression, its inefficiency and the hardships of their lives. A family friend said Eastern Europe may have had an iron curtain, but Cuba had one made of smoke and mirrors.

“Aquí, todo es un misterio”.

Here, everything’s a mystery.

That appears to be a popular expression and one of my favorites.

No one knows, for example, why you can’t go inside the airport’s baggage claim area to greet passengers. Or why passengers are let out in groups of two or three.