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Cuba: Corruption, the
Real Threat
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA (IPS) - One of the
priorities of the process of change
undertaken by Cuban President Raúl
Castro is apparently curbing corruption,
which threatens to undermine the country
from the inside.
"The capacity of any nation to withstand
challenges from outside is measured, in
first place, by its internal strength,"
Cuban academic Esteban Morales wrote in
an article in which he said corruption
is "much more dangerous than the
so-called internal dissidents" in this
one-party socialist state.
The dissidents are "isolated; they have
no alternative proposals, no real
leaders, no mass support. Corruption is
the true counter-revolution, and can do
the most damage," he added.
The article, which has been circulating
on the internet since Monday, deals with
a touchy subject that is almost
completely ignored by Cuba's
state-controlled press.
"I am in favour of not allowing these
and other questions, which are 'our'
issues, to be dealt with by others,"
Morales, an economist and researcher at
the University of Havana's Centre for
the Study of the Hemisphere and the
United States, told IPS.
His article coincided with the
government's announcement of 750
inspections and audits to be carried out
"at random" nationwide from Apr. 19 to
May 22 by the Comptroller General's
Office, created in August 2009 as a key
element in the process of changes
promised by Castro after he replaced his
ailing brother Fidel as head of state.
The president said at the time that the
Comptroller General's Office would play
an essential role in controlling and
overseeing government spending, and
would decisively crack down on "any form
of corruption," while tackling "the
causes and conditions that can lead to
negligent or criminal behaviour by any
government leader or functionary."
In an interview published Monday by the
daily newspaper Trabajadores,
Comptroller General Gladys Bejerano said
her office is in charge of oversight of
public assets, funds and resources,
"including state bodies and political
and mass organisations," and that one of
its tasks is to follow up on reports by
Cuban citizens of corruption or illegal
activity.
Bejerano, who said the phenomenon of
corruption was "very complex," admitted
that oversight and monitoring systems
had been badly weakened, and stressed
that workers must press for their right
to discuss the use of public resources
and that public bodies have the
obligation to report incidents.
In his article, Morales referred to
rumours about the reasons behind the
Mar. 8 removal of the president of the
Civil Aeronautics Institute of Cuba (IACC),
Gen. Rogelio Acevedo.
Acevedo was one of the guerrillas led by
Fidel Castro in the Sierra Maestra
mountains in the 1950s, and later
participated in the Angolan civil war in
the 1970s and 1980s.
In Morales' view, the unofficial
explanation that is going around for why
Acevedo was sacked is disturbing. And he
added that "there must be some truth in
these reports, because this is a very
small country where people know each
other."
According to the information from
unofficial reports, unnamed civil
aviation personnel reportedly sold space
on Cubana de Aviación planes to Latin
American firms to transport their
merchandise, and pocketed the money. The
sources of the reports also say many
people are under investigation in
relation to the case.
"An exhaustive public explanation for
the case has not yet been offered, and
people are waiting for one," Morales
said.
The writer said similar cases have been
discovered in other public bodies. In
some public enterprises, "bosses might
be taking commissions and opening up
bank accounts in other countries - which
means other probes should be carried out
as well."
In his view, it is starting to become
clear that there are people in the
government who are "stashing money away"
against the possibility of "the
revolution's collapse."
Others, Morales added, "might have just
about everything ready for the transfer
of state assets to private hands, as
occurred in the Soviet Union" after it
fell apart in 1991.
Without naming names or dates, Morales
said "extremely serious" matters led to
the Mar. 2, 2009 removal of then Vice
President Carlos Lage, Foreign Minister
Felipe Pérez Roque and other high-level
officials.
He insinuated that the officials were
passing information to Spanish
intelligence, "questions as sensitive as
claims and aspirations to power,
favoritism, corruption and indiscreet
expressions about the country's
highest-level leadership, which foreign
intelligence services were already aware
of.
"Political merchandise of extremely high
added value, in the hands of enemies of
the revolution," Morales commented.
The United States pays close attention
to the internal situation in Cuba, he
pointed out.
"Everything that happens inside Cuba is
observed and monitored by U.S. political
leaders, and especially by the special
services of that country," he said.
A Cuban official who engages in corrupt
practices with any foreign company must
know that the information in question
can fall into the hands of the special
services of any country, and that from
there to the hands of U.S. agencies "is
just a tiny step."
Any sensitive information about Cuba
fetches a high price from the U.S.
intelligence services, Morales said. "If
by this time we're not aware of that,
we're done for," he stated. |
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