Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Sandokan · Mar 16, 2014

From the Jewish Museum to the Stasi Museum and From Berlin Straight to Havana
Yoani Sanchez: From the Jewish Museum to the Stasi Museum and From Berlin Straight to Havana

Yoani Sanchez
Posted 05/10/2013

The Jewish Museum in Berlin. Photo: Yoani Sanchez

The building is shaped like a dislocated Star of David. Gray, with a zinc-clad facade and little openings that provoke a strong sense of claustrophobia. The museum is not only the objects on its walls and in its display cases, the museum is all of it, each space one can move through and even the voids -- with no human presence -- that can be glimpsed through certain gaps. There are family photos, books with their gold-embossed covers, medical instruments, and images of young people in their bathing suits. It is life, the life of German Jews before the Holocaust. One might expect to see only the testimonies of the horrors, but most dramatic is finding yourself facing the testimony of everyday life. Laughter captured -- years before the tragedy -- is as painful to look at as are the emaciated corpses and piled up cadavers. The proof of those moments of happiness make the tears and pain that follow more terrifying.

After a time between the narrow corridors of the place and amid its bewildering architecture, I go outside and breathe. I see spring greenery in Berlin and think: we can't allow this past to ever return.

And not very far from there, stands the Stasi Museum. I enter their cells, the interrogation rooms. I come from the perspective of a Cuban who was detained in the same place, where a window looking outward becomes an unattainable dream. One cell was lined with rubber, the scratch marks of the prisoners can still be seen on its walls. But more sinister seeming to me are the offices where they ripped -- or fabricated -- a confession from the detainees. I know them, I've seen them. They are a copy of their counterpart in Cuba, copied to a T by the diligent students from the Island's Ministry of the Interior who were taught by GDR State Security. Impersonal, with a chair the prisoner can't move because it is anchored to the floor and some supposed curtain behind which the microphone or video camera are hidden. And the constant metallic noises from the rattling of the locks and bars, to remind the prisoners where they are, how much they are at the mercy of their jailer.

After this I again need air, to get out from within those walls. I turn away from that place with the conviction that what, for them, is a museum of the past, is what we are still living in the present. A "now" that we cannot allow to prolong itself into tomorrow.

A tiny window, the only source of light in a German Stasi cell. Photo: Yoani Sanchez

Hundreds of East German government documents on Stasi relations with Cuba's own feared Ministry of the Interior, known as MININT, has been found in the Stasi archives.

The MININT is ''almost a carbon copy'' of the repressive Stasi security system, exported by East Germany to Cuba in the 1970s and '80s, and the ties between the two organizations run far deeper than previously known.

Sandokan · Apr 2, 2014

The Stasi taught the Cubans how to bug tourist hotel rooms, how to mount effective camera and wiretap systems for eavesdropping, delivered one-way mirrors used for interrogations and provided equipment to fabricate masks, mustaches and other forms of makeup, provided computers and introduced new archiving methods that better organized, protected and sped up the Cubans' processing of security information.

Sandokan · Apr 13, 2014

U.S. experts on Cuban security agencies agree with the Stasi role in Cuba: “East Germany had a major role in building up Cuban counterintelligence as well as its foreign intelligence services, providing training for decades . . . right up to the final days of East Germany,” said Chris Simmon, a career U.S. counterintelligence officer and expert on Cuban intelligence.

“'The repressive system that existed in East Germany . . . is the same one that exists today in Cuba,” he says. “What MININT learned from the Stasi has not been forgotten.”

Sandokan · Apr 26, 2014

When a security system has its own prisons, judges, lawyers and interrogators and no one controls them, as in the Castroit regime, then the state security is what's sustaining the Communist Party, and repression is what's sustaining the Castroit regime.

Sandokan · Jun 6, 2014

Jorge Luis Garcia Vázquez author of the blog STASI-MININT, is a Cuban exile living in Berlin. In his blog he provides lots of information about the relationship between the STASI & the MINIT. In his article “El Archivo del MININT y el asesoramiento de la STASI.” (The MININT Archive and the advise of the STASI), he provide the followings statistics (translation):

Until 1980 the MININT had prepared a total of:

2,088,571 records or documents of the State Security
6,056,847 records pertaining to Internal Order

This total quantity of documents: 8,145,418, was the main problem of the Minint, their classification, organization and conservation, especially of 160,000 pre-1959 records....

The Stasi report describes the exact location of the Archive, the status of the personal Card Index, which contains “all the Counterintelligence materials, for example the data on informants, operations carried out or documents of operational importance.”

In this card index alone were registered 4 million people with the following personal data: surname, first name, date of birth, gender, skin color, codified fingerprints and registration number....

The officers of the Stasi, who have came to have 180 kilometers of records and documents on their citizens, delivered gladly to their allies and students in political repression their experiences and technical resources, to monitor and liquidate any opposition or dissent.
Here you can read the whole document in Spanish: Stasi-Minint Connection

Sandokan · Jun 15, 2014

Cuba's New Real Estate Market, Betting on the Future, Wary of the Pasthttp://www.huffingtonpost.com/yoani-sanchez/cubas-new-real-estate-mar_b_3299636.html

Yoani Sanchez

Placing zeros to the right seems to be the preferred sport of those who put a price on the homes they sell in Cuba today. A captive market at the end of the day, the buyer could find a lot of surprises in the wide range of classified ads. From owners who ask astronomical sums for their houses, sums that have nothing to do with the reality of demand, to real bargains that make you feel sorry for the naiveté of the negotiator. Many are pressured to sell, some by those with the smarts to realize that this is the time to buy a house on the Island. It is a bet on the future, if it goes wrong they lose almost everything, but if it goes well they position themselves -- in advance -- for tomorrow. The slow hurry up and the fast run at the speed of light. These are times to make haste, the end of an era could be close... say the smartest.

It's surprising to see, with barely any notion of real estate, how Cubans launch themselves into the marketing of square meters. They talk about their space, usually with an over abundance of adjectives that make you laugh or scare you. So when you read "one bedroom apartment in central Havana with mezzanine bedroom," you should understand "room in a Central Havana apartment with wooden platform." If they talk about a garden, it's best to imagine a bed with soil and plants at the entrance; and even five-bedroom residences, after a visit, are reduced to two bedrooms partitioned with cardboard. The same mistrust with which people view the photos on the social networks where young people look for partners, should be applied to housing ads here. However, you can also find real pearls in the midst of the exaggeration.

Right now there are at least three parameters that determine the final cost of a home: location, physical state of construction, and pedigree. The neighborhood has a great influence on the final value of the property. In Havana, the most prized areas are Vedado, Miramar, Central Havana, Víbora and Cerro, for their central character. The least wanted are Alamar, Reparto Eléctrico, San Miguel del Padrón and La Lisa. The poor state of public transport significantly influences people's preference for houses that are near major commercial centers with abundant spaces for entertainment. If there is a farmers market in the vicinity, the asking price goes up; if it is near the Malecon it also goes up. People shy away from the periphery, although among the "new rich," those who have accumulated a little more capital whether by legal or illegal means, the trend of looking for homes in the outskirts has begun. It is still too early, however, to speak about a trend to locate in greener and less polluted areas. For now, the main premise can be summarized as the more central the better.

The physical state is one of the other elements that defines what a home will cost. If the ceiling is beam and slab, the numbers fall; meanwhile constructions from the 1940s and '50s enjoy a very good reputation and appeal. The lowest values are for the so-called "microbrigade works" with their ugly concrete buildings and their little Eastern European style apartments. If the roofing is light -- tiles, zinc, wood, ceiling paper -- the seller will get less. The state of the bathroom and kitchen are another point that directly influences the marketability of the property. The quality of the floors, if the windows are barred and the door is new -- of glass and metal -- these are points in its favor. If there are no neighbors overhead, then the seller can rest easy. Also very valuable are houses with two entrances, designed for a large family seeking to split up and live independently. Everything counts, anything goes.

So far it resembles a real estate market like any other anywhere in the world. However, there is a situation that defines, in a very particular way, the value of homes for sale. This is their pedigree. This refers to whether the house has belonged to the family for forever, or if it was confiscated in one of the waves of expropriations in Cuba. If the previous owner left during the Rafter Crisis of 1994 and the State handed the property over to someone new, the price is lower. The same thing happens if it was taken during the Mariel Boatlift in 1980, a time when property was awarded to others after the emigration of those who had lived there up until that time. But where the prices hit rock bottom is with those homes confiscated between 1959 and 1963, when great numbers left for exile. Few want to take on the problem of acquiring a site that later may go into litigation. Although there are some who are taking advantage of this situation to buy real mansions in the most central neighborhoods at bargain prices.

In order to check the location, the state of construction, as well as the legal past of the house, potential buyers are aided by their own experience, a good architect and even a lawyer to dig through the details of the property. Each element adds or removes a cipher, one zero or one hundred to the total price people are willing to pay. In a captive market anything is possible; it's as if knowledge of real estate has only been sleeping, lethargic, and now returns with amazing force.

House deficit is estimated in 1.6 million units. 75% of the units in existence are over 40 years old, and 60% of the total is in bad or average condition according to the Cuban National Housing Institute.

During the last 50 years the construction of new houses has been dismal. The regime statistics in the construction of new houses are cooked. This suspicion is validated by Former Vice-Minister Carlos Lage who near the beginning of 2009 revealed that less than half of the 111,300 housing units claimed built in 2006 were in fact built.

The 2002 census data show that of the new housing units built between 1990 and 2002, close to 50,000 were bohíos and adobe structures (primitive dwellings with palm bark walls, earthen floors and palm leave roofs; adobe, mud bricks walls, earthen floors and palm leave roofs}. Those can’t be classified as adequate housing.

Sandokan · Jun 23, 2014

The Castroit regime newspaper Juventud Rebelde reported in April 2008 that in the city of Havana alone 28,000 people resided in buildings about to collapse. The expansion of slums (shanty towns, shelters) in the city has increased 50%, sheltering as many as 450,000 inhabitants, 20% of the city 2.2 million. It is very common that 3 generations live in a single house. This is the fundamental reason why the people occupy terraces, balconies, porches, sidewalks, and build mezzanines, to gain space. This has created a grave social problem for the regime.

Sandokan · Jul 7, 2014

The Oficina Nacional de Estadísticas (ONE) estimated in 33,901 the number of houses terminated in 2010, of which 12,214 were built by individuals and the rest by the state.

The construction of dwellings, around 35,000 units annually, not only aren’t enough to solve the housing deficit, but not even for replacing the losses by diverse causes. No signs of improvement are seeing in the future for the housing problem under the Castroit regime.

Sandokan · Jul 28, 2014

Loose in Havana Gandalf and Elton John
Loose in Havana, Gandalf and Elton John | Generation Y

By Joani Sanchez

London has come to Havana. During this week of British Culture that is celebrated from the first of June in our country, even the climate has decided to be in sync with that of the other Island. Grey skies, drizzle, mist at dawn. All we lack is the silhouette of Sherlock Holmes sneaking around a corner or a magician knocking with this staff on the wood of our door. They are days of great music and a chance to appreciate unusual schedule in the movie theaters. Since last Tuesday they have been showing a selection that includes the 2013 Oscar winning documentary Searching for Sugar Man, and also the biographical film Marley, about the life of the famous reggae singer and composer. The selection of cartoons for kids and teens will probably attract a good audience at a time when many are on vacation from school.

I have been enjoying some of the programming not only for me but also for many others. Especially thinking about those young Cubans , or forty years ago, secretly listened to an English quartet which the official media now play everywhere. The striking colors and the design of the poster for this “British Week” has evoked for me the iconography of the Mad Hatter in Alice in Wonderland, and also the delightful adventurers in the Yellow Submarine. So some of us have also taken it as a tribute to those battered Beatlemaniacs from back then. These days, however, the greatest comfort comes from the window cracked open to let in this fresh air that comes to us from the outside. This gift of sensing that culture can make the Atlantic seem narrower, the passing years shorter, the losses recoverable.

Like Paul McCartney concert in Red Square in May 2003 before a crowd of 100,000, where the Beatles were previously banned by the Communist dictatorship, Bono will performed in Havana in a free Cuba in front of a much larger audience.

Sandokan · Aug 7, 2014

During the decade of the 60’s, under the Castroit regime, the use of tie pants, long hair Beatles’ style and their music was considered an ideological deviation of the revolutionary principles. The young Beatle fans of that time were persecuted, ex pulsed from educational centers and send to the Military Units to Help Production (UMAP) forced labor camps along with dissidents, homosexuals, and other “scum” who had committed no crime punishable by law, revolutionary or otherwise.

Sandokan · Aug 16, 2014

Entrance Exams: An Assessment of Education in Cuba
Yoani Sanchez: Entrance Exams: An Assessment of Education in Cuba

Yoani Sanchez

They're no longer dressed in blue uniforms and some boys even show off their rebellious manes. Hair that no teacher will demand they cut -- at least for the next few weeks -- hair that will ultimately fall to the razor of Obligatory Military Service. They still look like students, but very soon many of them will be marching with rifles slung over their shoulders. They are young men who just, days ago, finished their school days at different high schools all over Cuba. The college entrance exams are long past and this week they've learned who will have a place in higher education.

Just outside the schools, the lists of the accepted and unaccepted speak for themselves. José Miguel Pérez High school -- in the Plaza of the Revolution municipality -- could be a good example to explain the situation. This educational center is one of the best performing high schools in the capital. A situation partly due to the professional and economic composition of the neighborhood, which means many parents can afford after-school TUTORS (we refer to these as "dishtowels" -- they clean things up). Despite these advantages, the end-of-year statistics for this school are more alarming than satisfying.

Education in Cuba before 1959

The first United States intervention worked to replace the war-ravished educational system with one based on American models (a pattern followed until the Revolution of 1959)

After the first American intervention school teaching took an enormous stride forward thanks to the great work of Enrique Jose Varona who stirred up school and university education. Varona was an able guide and rendered his country a great service.

By 1925 8,854 teachers in 4,202 schools were teaching 426,413 children, the highest proportion of children in school in Latin America, and Cuban educators were serving as advisers in several other countries of the region. There were, however, few schools in the countryside, where half the population lived.

President Fulgencio Batista in the late thirties improved the primary and secondary education with the creation of the so called civic military schools in rural areas with army sergeants as teachers, and the "Civic-Military Institutes" at secondary level in 1940.

Elementary education was compulsory for children between 6 and 14 years of age. In the 1950s, there were 1,206 rural schools in Cuba and a system of mobile libraries with 180,000 volumes used predominantly in the rural areas. The total number of kindergartens and primary schools were 12,640, of which 900 were private schools (324 catholic schools).

Sandokan · Aug 28, 2014

In 1958 Cuba had 34,000 teachers in public schools and 3,500 in 900 officially recognized private schools, educating a total of 1,346,800 students, of which 90,000 were in private school (68,000 enrolled in catholic schools) [1]. The public school system covered from kindergarten up to High School.

There were also 171 high schools with an enrolment of 49,200 students. Also 114 institutions of higher education, below the university level; among them were technical institutes, polytechnic and professional schools, which were financed by the government. Just in 1958, these institutions graduated 38,428 students. In 1958, the island's illiteracy rate was 18%.

Another 165 private high schools had an enrollment of 36,280 students, for a total of 85,480 students in high school. The number of universities reached 6, 3 state universities and 3 privates. There were 25,000 students enrolled in the universities. The total number of students at all levels was 1,495,700. This data is found in the archives of Cuba's Ministry of Education.

[1] En el último año de aquella república, Abreu Ramiro, Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, La Habana, 1984

Sandokan · Sep 7, 2014

Cuba has had one of the most literate populations in Latin America since well before the Castroit revolution. Cuba national illiteracy rate was 18% in 1958, ranking third in Latin America.

Cuba was the Latin American country with the highest budget for education in 1958, with 23% of the total budget earmarked for this expense. It was followed by Costa Rica (20%), and Guatemala and Chile, each with 16%. This data comes from America in Statistics, published by the Pan American Union.

The female percentage, in relation to the total student population, was the highest in the Western Hemisphere including the US. According to the United Nations Statistics Division yearbook of 1959, shows Cuba having 3.8 university students per 1,000 inhabitants, well above the Latin America median of 2.6.

Many Cuban textbook were incorporated by several Latin American as official textbooks on their school systems. Cuban texts books exported to those countries, brought $10 million revenue in 1958.

Sandokan · Sep 17, 2014

From 1899 to 1958 the illiteracy rate dropped from 72% (Census of 1899) to 18% (Cuba's Ministry of Education archives) for persons older than 10 years of age, a remarkable achievement. Cubans were not just literate but also educated.

There is a pattern from the Castroit regime to inflate the percentage of illiterates prior to 1959, by using the illiteracy rate of the 1953 census of 23.6%. Fidel Castro on December 17, 1960, in the CMQ-TV program "Meet the Press" affirmed that “The illiteracy rate in our country is 37.5%.” In the Central Report to the First Congress of the Party in 1975, Fidel said that “on the date of the Moncada (1953), 23.6% of the population over 10 years was illiterate.” [1]. In spite of what Fidel said, the document "V Congress of the Communist Party of Cuba in October 1997, referring to the period before 1959 says “a country with more than 40 per cent of illiterates.” [2]

The regime eventually acknowledge the real number, which indicated that in 1961 from a total of 929,207 identified as illiterates, 707,212 were taught to read and write; 221,995 did not acquire these skills. [3]

In 1961 the population over 10 years was 5.15 million, and the number of illiterates 929,207. The actual illiteracy rate based on the regime figures was 18 %, the same percentage than in 1958. It is obvious the cooking of the figures by the regime.

[1] Fidel Castro Ruz: Informe Central al Primer Congreso del Partido. Editado por el DOR del Comité Central del PCC, Habana, Cuba, 1975, p. 27.

[2] Granma Internacional 1997, Documento fundamento del V congreso del Partido Comunista Cubano

[3] Verde Olivo (Havana), August 16, 1968, pp. 40-43 - En ese año se habían localizado 979.207 analfabetos y de ellos se habían alfabetizado 707.212; de la población cubana, entonces estimada en 6.933.253 habitantes, quedaban sin alfabetizar 271.955

Sandokan · Sep 27, 2014

The good thing about Yoani Sanchez website is the capacity to bring out into the open the pathetic Pro-Castro fellow travelers who support the Stalinist regime in Cuba from the comfort of their own arm chairs in the US and other countries. Keep posting Yoani, sock it to them, gives your versions of events in Cuba as you see them.

Sandokan · Oct 9, 2014

Looking for a Lost Pill
Looking for a Lost Pill | Generation Y

By Yoani Sanchez

The piece of paper was left under the door, but he only found it the other day. The list was written in rough handwriting, with spelling that exchanged “R’s” for “L’s” and some “B’s” for “V’s.” But he understood everything. Diazepam continues at 10 pesos for a dozen pills and should be delivered within a day, at least for the next month. Paracetamol is also available, so next to the name of that medicine he put the number two. This time he didn’t need alcohol, but Nystatin cream is a yes so he marked it. His son, restless by nature, could also use some meprobamate so he also wrote down the number for a several week supply. This dealer was reliable, he’d never been cheated, all the medications were good quality and some were even imported. More than once he’d bought the sealed jars that said, “Sale prohibited, free distribution only.”

The business of medications and other medical supplies is growing every day. A stethoscope on the black market costs the salary of two working days; a Salbutamol spray for asthmatics costs the wages of an entire work day. Given the undersupplied State pharmacies, patients and their families can’t sit around with their arms crossed. A roll of tape costs around 10 pesos in national currency, the same price as a glass thermometer. You can break the law or continue diagnosing fever with a hand to the forehead. The danger, however, comes not only from violating the law. In reality, many customers self-medicate or consume pills that no doctor has prescribed for them. Given the clandestine seller, it’s not necessary to show a prescription and he never questions what the client is going to do with the pills or syrups.

Despite the successive sweeps against drug smuggling, the phenomenon seems to increase rather than decrease. In the Havana area of Puentes Grandes an old trash bin turned into a pharmaceutical warehouse is the emblem of the government strategies and failures to prevent illicit sales. The police are incapable of eradicating the situation, because the diversion of medications is carried out from grocers, pharmacy technicians, nurses, doctors, even hospital directors. The greatest demands are centered around analgesics, anti-inflammatories, antidepressants, syringes, cotton and painkiller creams. The illegal drug market also goes along with adulteration and counterfeiting.

Some small white pills, costing three times their official value, can end the problem, or be the start of others, more serious.

The Castroit regime has for many years been treating the health care personnel as “exportable commodities.” It is a modern day version of trafficking in human beings, a multi billion dollars form of international crime, a violation of human rights. The regime earns around $6 billion per year exporting professional services, especially doctors, to other countries, more than the $5.6 billion brought by tourism, nickel and remittances together

There are a total of 76,000 Cuban doctors. According to MINSAP, 40,000 Cuban doctor’s work oversees. From 2003 to 2012, it is estimate that 4,000 physicians left Cuba. This left at 32,000 the numbers of doctors in Cuba. Of those, near 10% quit their profession to work in more lucrative jobs, leaving only 28,800 working in their profession. The regime has acknowledged that there is a shortage of doctors and nurses in Cuba. The vice minister of public health, Joaquín García Salaberría, took the highly unusual step of admitting on Cuban television that there were shortages of doctors and nurses. The World Health statistics 2013, based in the data submitted by the Castroit regime, estimate in 67.2 the number of physicians per 10,000 population. This is equal to one doctor for every 149 people. But the real per capita of practicing doctors in Cuba is one doctor for every 389 people.

Sandokan · Oct 19, 2014

One of the most readily apparent problems with the health care system in Cuba is the severe shortage of medicines, equipment, and other supplies. Even the most common pharmaceutical items, such as aspirin and antibiotics are conspicuously absent or only available on the black market, and patients need to provide bed sheets and food during hospital stays.

This problem is by no means limited to the health sector. Cubans often have tremendous difficulty obtaining basic consumer goods and other necessities, including food.

Sandokan · Oct 27, 2014

Many treatments we take for granted aren't available at all, except to the Communist elite, foreigners with dollars, and top members of the repressive apparatus and the armed forces. For those, the Castroit regime keeps hospitals equipped with the best medicines and most modern technologies. And, whatever is left, is for the rest of the population, the have not.

Sandokan · Nov 4, 2014

No Pangs of Conscience for Cubans Who ‘Recover’ ‘Invent’ ‘Struggle’ ‘Survive'
Yoani Sanchez

By Yoani Sanchez

She has broken a nail in her agitation. Tomorrow she will have to go back to the manicurist to restore the nail polish and the miniature English flag painted there. His shirt is falling apart in the effort and his whole body is covered in sweat as if someone had thrown a bucket of water over him. No, it's not an erotic scene, it's not love, but lawlessness. A couple under the June sun carrying sand to finish remodeling their kitchen. They've stolen it from a theater that is being remodeled. Lurking until the custodian fell asleep after lunch. Then they filled two bags, which are enough to build a little counter. The little house has been built this way, taking a bit from here and there, hoping for someone to look the other way to carry off some bricks or floor tiles. Their little home has been the result of depredation, of this rapacity that so many Cubans assume towards the resources of the State. Take everything you can, grab anything from this powerful owner... and get it done.

Among the reasons some buildings take so long to build or repair are not only apathy and lack of efficiency. The theft of cement, steel and other construction materials also slows down many public works. Some are already memorable, where the amount of resources stolen increases the initial costs of the building or restoration by a factor of three. The sinks disappear even before they come off the truck, the paint cans are filled with water to resell the paint on the black market, and there is even a hotel where 36 air conditioners were stolen a few days before its opening. Faced with so many thefts, each object and resource must be closely watched and the watchers watched in turn.

Many eyes are waiting for a slip-up. In one uncontrolled early morning a mound of gravel was reduced by a third. On some summer vacations, a school without a custodian could lose several windows and the occasional toilet. The light fixtures disappear, the electrical switches are ripped out and the looting extends also to the door handles, the stair railings, and even the ceiling tiles. With no pangs of conscience or guilt complexes on the part of the perpetrators. It's more like the exploited poor taking a piece of the boss's delicious snack when he's distracted looking out the window. It is symptomatic that almost all those who take building materials from State construction projects feel no remorse for doing so. They call it "recovering," "inventing," "struggling," "surviving," When standing in a shower built with stolen tiles, under the running water they think, "you take what they give you and what they don't give you... too."

Corruption has been a chronic problem for the Castroit tyrannical regime, it institutionalized corruption. As the political power and control of the economy became increasingly concentrated in the hands of the totalitarian ruling class, consumer-good shortages and inefficiencies in resource allocation led to black-market activities.

After more than five decades of tyrannical rule and with the promise of material prosperity vanished by the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, corruption became prevalence, and more and more Cubans became proficient at trading on the black market whatever they could steal from the regime.

Sandokan · Nov 18, 2014

The inevitable changes toward a more open political regime likely to follow Fidel Castro's eventual death, the regime ruling elite has begun to prepare the ground for a wholesale assault on the country's patrimony to safeguard its own economic well-being.

The recent appearance of grand-scale corruption among high-ranking political elite is not very different from what was observed in most former communist countries. The level of corruption depends on the degree of monopoly exercised by the regime over the supply of goods and services, the degree of discretion enjoyed by government agencies in making resource-allocation decisions, and the degree of accountability. The regime ownership of productive facilities results in a lack of identifiable ownership and widespread misuse and theft of state resources.

Sandokan · Nov 25, 2014

Corruption is widespread, workers steal from the government enterprises where they work, bribing their bosses to get the goods out of the workplace and resell them in the black market.

There is a high degree of corruption, fraud and public use of funds by the party apparatchiks. Managers of state enterprises divert good to sell on the black market. In June 2011, fifteen top executives of Cubana de Aviación were sentenced to prison for fraud. In April the vice president of Habanos S.A. and 10 others employees were under arrest for selling cigars illegally to foreign distributors. Pedro Alvarez, former head of Alimport, under investigation for corruption, escaped from the island in late December 2010. In August 2012, three vice-ministers and another nine state official of the Moa nickel plant were sentenced to prison in corruption scandals.

Sandokan · Dec 6, 2014

The Castroit state-run monopolies, cronyism, and absence of responsibility have made the island one of the world's most corrupt nations. This type of corruption where favors are provided to the political elite, has permeated all levels of the ruling class, the “new class” according to Milovan Djilas definition. He delineated the “new class” of rulers as "those who have special privileges and economic preferences because of the administrative monopoly they hold." This “new class” that ferociously protects its privileges and status, is suspicious of those actions that could weaken its power. The ruling class will defend it to the end.

Sandokan · Dec 18, 2014

Re: C. Corruption under the Castroit reguba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Corruption under the Castroit regime is a logical consequence of its economical structure. Under Cuba's current military regime it is not possible to eradicate corruption. In order to eradicate corruption in Cuba, it is necessary to first end the totalitarian rule of the regime. It is difficult to predict the future, but I am confident that Cuba will evolve toward a democracy with a market-oriented economy, probably with an important role for the state in social sectors such as health and education.

Sandokan · Dec 26, 2014

Re: C. Corruption under the Castroit reguba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

The regime doesn’t pay enough because it claim workers are not very productive. Those workers who are pay little steal from the government what is necessary for them to survive. Since the means of production “belongs to the people”, they are not stealing from themselves, they are stealing from the “Tyrannosaurus reserves.”

Sandokan · Jan 4, 2015

Re: C. Corruption under the Castroit reguba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Those which are producing less because the job of 2 is made by 3, are been lay off. The so call “revolutionary” are left on the job and the “productive” end up without work. Is that the regime solution to the problem? For sure that will create even a bigger problem.

Private Property will solve the problem, since people will not steal from themselves. People will be making more money and also will be interested on the good outcome of their business. They will work because they need and want to, not because the regime commands them. That is the main problem with the Castroit regime.

Cuba’s bloggers are as sharp abroad as at home

Privacy & Transparency

Privacy & Transparency