The spokesperson for the Cuban regime, Humberto López, has presented on his show "Hacemos Cuba," which is aligned with the Communist Party, an alleged campaign against administrative corruption, "a phenomenon repudiated by the vast majority of Cubans," coming after 66 years of impunity, particularly among the upper echelons of the government.
It clashes with this open campaign that there is no mention of the case of former Minister of Economy, Alejandro Gil Fernández, who was removed from office for corruption in February of last year. The truth is that it is unknown how his judicial process has evolved or how he committed the crimes he is accused of, despite the fact that now the PCC's propaganda machinery claims they are pursuing corrupt individuals "without sponsors and without leniency" because "there is no possibility of making exceptions" and the punishment "must be consistent".
All this media spectacle, including public trials and the revelation on television of personal details about those involved, is part of the Third National Exercise for the Prevention and Confrontation of Crime, Corruption, Drugs, and Social Indiscipline. This massive operation concluded on June 28, under the control of the Communist Party, the Ministry of the Interior, and other state structures.
To demonstrate that this time they mean business, spokesperson Humberto López referenced a speech by Fidel Castro in which he labeled corrupt individuals as "agents of the enemy, whether conscious or unconscious." He also referred to "a detailed control and monitoring mechanism" for corruption cases, which is overseen by President Miguel Díaz-Canel and is said to analyze criminal offenses committed within the provincial government structures of Havana and Santiago de Cuba, as well as within the ministries of Energy and Mines, Domestic Trade, Transportation, Industries, Food Industry, and Agriculture.
The proposal from Canal Caribe began by analyzing four recently detected cases of corruption that are still under investigation, which means that everything stated by spokesperson Humberto López is considered true, despite the absence of a firm judicial ruling, clearly undermining the right to the presumption of innocence.
The first of the corruption scandals reportedly occurred at the Base Unit 654 of the Granma Wholesale Food Company in Bayamo, where several managers and employees allegedly conspired to conceal the theft of rice, sugar, and stored grains. These products were intended for the distribution of the basic food basket for 256,000 residents of the municipality of Bayamo. The modus operandi involved filling bags with sand to make it appear as though the products were still in their place, thereby evading inspections. This case has resulted in eight individuals being placed in preventive detention. The money they obtained from the sale of the stolen supplies on the black market was used to purchase televisions, music equipment, air conditioners, and motorcycles, among other items.
He also detailed the case of the Solid Waste Collection Company Aurora, from the Plaza de la Revolución municipality, where several executives were using state funds to purchase cement, chicken, and beer. In the case of the Garbage Collection Company of Centro Habana, the operation revolved around selling the fuel from the garbage trucks, as they received one liter of fuel for each blue container they collected. According to state television, they were selling the fuel and not collecting the garbage.
Finally, there are 23 detained at the Suchel Regalo Business Unit, where bath and laundry soaps are produced for distribution. Among those arrested are workers who were caught leaving the company with soaps concealed on their bodies, specifically in the abdomen and ankles. In total, an initial inspection uncovered over 2,000 soaps being illegally taken out of the factory in this manner. To conceal the theft, they altered the raw materials, which allowed them to overproduce soaps of inferior quality. The Minint estimates that production of 27,000 bath soaps and 18,000 laundry soaps was halted.
All those involved in these corruption cases face the crime of aggravated embezzlement, with penalties that can reach up to 20 years in prison.
The cases have come to light once the Comptroller General's Office of the Republic received complaints from the public or identified the issues through audits or information provided by Minint, said Dalman Dalmau Palomino, Deputy Comptroller General of the Republic.
For his part, Colonel Alexis Hernández Pumarada, head of the Territorial Criminal Investigation Unit of Havana, warned that often, when people think they are acting with impunity, "there are people from Minint who are aware of these events through various means." The question is obvious: why, if they are, like God, everywhere, is there corruption in state-owned enterprises?
Filed under:
