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This Saturday, Osmany Cienfuegos Gorriarán, a historical figure of the regime and older brother of Camilo Cienfuegos, passed away in Cuba at the age of 94.
Although his death was announced with official honors and words of condolence from the ruler Miguel Díaz-Canel, his political career reveals a more complex story, marked by power, repression, and discretion behind the scenes.
Born in Havana in 1931, Osmany Cienfuegos graduated as an architect from the University of Havana. After the triumph of the Cuban Revolution in 1959, he quickly joined the government led by the dictator Fidel Castro, taking on high-responsibility positions in key sectors such as construction, tourism, and foreign relations.
Her political activism was not merely a reflection of her brother Camilo's charisma, the commander who disappeared under circumstances that remain unexplained, but rather the result of her proximity to the core of revolutionary power.
He was the Minister of Tourism, an ambassador, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party, and a key figure in the institutionalization of the regime.
One of the less mentioned but more controversial chapters of his biography relates to the foundational stage of the regime, when a policy of systematic repression was implemented against opponents, former military personnel, ideological dissidents, and even former allies.
Osmany, from his position of power and as part of Fidel Castro's inner circle, was part of the bureaucratic apparatus that executed many of those decisions.
Reports from exiles and human rights organizations have highlighted their involvement in repressive actions, as well as their responsibility in the establishment of the institutional framework of an authoritarian state.
Unlike the guerrilla commanders who featured in speeches and murals, Cienfuegos operated behind the scenes, in the silent yet effective machinery of power.
In the 1990s, amidst the economic collapse following the fall of the Soviet bloc, Osmany was appointed Minister of Tourism. His mission was to revitalize one of the few sectors capable of generating foreign currency. Under his leadership, tourist hubs multiplied, agreements were signed with foreign chains, and the so-called "dollarization" of the sector was encouraged.
But their management also accentuated social inequalities. While tourists had access to luxuries in foreign currency, Cubans were trapped in a scarcity economy. Complaints about administrative opacity and privileges within the government quickly emerged.
In 1999, he was dismissed amid unconfirmed speculation about corruption cases, but state secrecy prevented the true reasons from being known.
In 2009, his figure returned to the spotlight when he was ousted as Vice President of the Council of Ministers in a sweeping government restructuring led by Raúl Castro. This restructuring also marked, among other things, the political disappearance of two heavyweight figures in Cuba: former Foreign Minister Felipe Pérez Roque and former Vice President Carlos Lage.
According to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo at the time, the purge included figures close to Fidel and was interpreted as a power move by Raúl to consolidate his leadership.
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