Miriam Celaya, Translator: Norma Whiting
One of the first rulings of General R. when he assumed the enthronement
to power (please allow me to flatter the younger Castro's vanity) was to
create a system to detect and to put a stop to the rampant corruption
that has been entrenched in the country through all spheres and at all
levels. It is suspected that corruption is generalized, but the controls
and audits reach only to a point … past this point, it might cause
dangerous vertigo.
The first (detecting corruption) should be extremely easy. It is obvious
and jumps up at you without much effort. The second (putting an end to
it), is another matter. Because the General, of course, initiated from
the start a process on the surface – not exactly from above — and
downward, just where the pockets of the regime resent it the most, and
many illustrious heads have rolled since then, including some
gray-haired celebrity ones or some that don't even have enough hair for
a comb-over and only until recently were part of the trusted court of
their olive green Majesties.
The first of the renowned Band of Seven to have been sacked were Otto
Rivero, Felipe Pérez Roque, Francisco Soberón, José Luis Rodríguez,
Carlos Lage, Carlos Valenciaga Estenoz and Fernando Rodríguez, who
apparently were some sort of threat to the higher epaulets in the
palace. "Revolutionaries" of the old guard, who until recently were
known for their proven commitment to the regime have joined them.
Apparently, the effects of the Finance Ministry are proving more
outrageous than what is prudent, so the official press has been given
explicit orders to keep silent. That is, even more silent. So the media,
mainly the written press, is engaged, with zeal worthy of better causes,
to bring to the light of day the misuse of resources by the manager of
some bakery or some agrarian co-op, but sweeps under the rug the dirt of
ministries and of other senior bureaucrats with titles that are longer
than their own names.
It seems that no one escapes the scrutiny of the severe comptroller of
impulses of the purifying will of the General. Personally, I think it's
like a cash count, in which the incoming treasurer makes an effort to
purify the accounts so that their own gains are not resented. Because in
the state we find ourselves, it could be said that comptrollers have
defecated against the ceiling fans, and more courtiers have been hit
with feces than their majesties had thought. From ministers, managers of
firms (foreign and Cuban), aviation directors, corporate officers of
various magnitudes, including the brand-new and militant ETECSA, and
countless numbers of minor number of minor entourages that have indeed
been publicly beheaded.
But what more curious individuals won't stop wondering, those who won't
stop misbehaving, who wonder about everything and are always full of
ill-intentions, is who will be the leaders charged with renovating a
model that seems to generate epidemics of corrupt leaders? What
guarantees will there be that of those who will assume the
responsibilities of the deposed won't end up corrupted? What are the
chances that a government that has not been able to create morally able
replacements to carry out the "high mission of the revolution" will ever
succeed in putting together, in the short run, a group of responsible
and honest leaders? Will they create leadership schools? Will the
General be able to trust anyone under the age of 75? Can we trust (and
this is the clincher) the selection capability of the General?
But, in the midst of this sea of corruption of those who used to manage
just a small slice of the power and the money, maybe the hardest
questions to answer are precisely those that seem more urgent and
logical: Are our president and his closest cronies the only "pure" ones
we have left to take the helm in the midst of so many storms? Is the
General "auditable"? Who is the comptroller who scrutinizes the
financial dealings of the administration of the country?
Let's sit and wait for the answer from the brand-new Comptroller General
of the Republic.
Translated by Norma Whiting
October 3 2011
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