Degeneracy Among Cuban Military Officers/ Juan Juan Almeida

Degeneracy Among Cuban Military Officers/ Juan Juan Almeida
Posted on March 9, 2013

Some official, unofficial and foreign media outlets have been subject to
a certain government manipulation, serving as an echo chamber by
focusing special attention on the fight against corruption, which seems
to have the become the principal challenge facing the Cuban president.
It was for this reason that in 2009 he created the office of Controller
General, the bureau in charge of conducting audits of state businesses
and institutions.

"We can`t think twice about the battle against crime and corruption,"
said the General in a speech before the Central Committee of the Cuban
Communist Party. He thought it sounded catchy and since then the refrain
has become a leitmotiv.

I ask myself how far the mighty sword of the controller's authority or
scope of action might reach. I suspect that the purpose of this
imaginary wordplay is more mythical than real. It has the hint of a
purge and less transparency than a Tamagotchi screen.

We all know that the concept of corruption goes a little deeper than the
corrupt bureaucrat. It does not enjoy "real official consent," yet it
leads to unnecessary and superfluous expenditures from the state
treasury. I prefer not to call it "stealing," which is such a horrendous
word.

The anti-corruption verbosity of the president-general is simply a
Stanislavsky-like mannerism — something energetic and appealing to the
ear. He should channel all this talent into something more constructive,
or more respectable, like not ordering crowds of paramilitaries out into
the streets every Sunday to attack defenseless women.

Cuba does not realize that this is just another infection eating away at
society.

Has the General forgotten that during his term as head of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces military leaders participated not only in
military campaigns, but also in popularity contests and licentiousness?

I cannot believe that Raul Castro, a symbol of Victorian puritanism and
a man obsessed with scrutinizing other people's lives, has not read even
one of the many reports dealing with incidents of assault or sexual
abuse by Cuban military personnel.

The president of the Council of State and the Council of Ministers of
the Republic of Cuba knows perfectly well that there is an endless list
of high-ranking leaders and important officials with gargantuan
appetites, who are as high spirited as festival clowns. They have been
seen to be involved in one or another "little scandal" related to
inappropriate sexual practices in which they have made use of pressure,
position, rank, deceit, subjugation or shamelessness.

How to combat this degeneracy? Here is a telling figure. According to
the Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces' own figures, which are
no doubt overly conservative, more than 40% of Cuban women who served in
Angola during the war years or afterwards were victims of sexual assault
or rape. And this does not include those who remained silent out of fear.

The island's leadership is made up of perverts, who are very attuned to
all the meanings of the word corruption.

1 March 2013

http://translatingcuba.com/degeneracy-among-cuban-military-officers-juan-juan-almeida/