The plot reads like a detective novel — shadowy oligarchs, a phantom airline, an unexplained death and a tropical island on the cusp of change. The twist is that this tale of alleged capitalist greed and corruption unfolds in Cuba, in the twilight of Castro rule, and the detectives are Communist Party officials.
If this were fiction, the author would be accused of over-egging things by making one of the protagonists a former bodyguard for former Chilean president Salvador Allende who becomes a guerrilla commander and ends up a tycoon nicknamed Potbelly.
Cuba’s biggest corruption scandal in years has ensnared stalwarts of the revolution, led to dozens of arrests and resignations and shone a light on clandestine preparations for the government’s possible collapse. An investigation into the food firm Rio Zaza — a joint venture between the Cuban government and the Chilean bodyguard-turned-businessman, Max Marambio — has spread to the airport, where senior officials allegedly used state aircraft to rake in millions of illicit dollars.
The civil aviation minister, Rogelio Acevedo, was fired in April and last month it was the turn of Jorge Luis Sierra Cruz, the transport minister, to be “liberated from his duties for errors committed in the performance of his functions.”
Corruption scandals are not new, but what has shocked Cubans is that the alleged scams are said to have been an effort to cash in before things crumble.
“It has become evident that there are people in government and state positions who are preparing a financial assault for when the revolution falls,” Esteban Morales, a historian and prominent commentator, wrote on the Web site of the state National Artists and Writers Union of Cuba.
Corruption posed a graver threat to the revolution than political dissidents, he said, because it came from within — from greedy party apparatchiks.
“Others are likely have everything ready to produce the transfer of state property into private hands, like what happened in the former Soviet Union,” he said.
The scandal broke in December last year, when the authorities jailed Lucy Leal, an accountant for Rio Zaza, over alleged irregularities at the food and drinks producer. More arrests followed, including employees of a sister company, the Sol y Son travel agency. In April, Rio Zaza’s Chilean manager, Roberto Baudrand, was found dead in his Havana flat in unexplained circumstances.
Suicide, said some; stress caused by seven-hour interrogation sessions, others said. Chilean diplomats lobbied in vain for an independent post-mortem examination.
Auschwitz survivor Eva Schloss, the stepsister of teenage diarist Anne Frank and a tireless educator about the horrors of the Holocaust, has died. She was 96. The Anne Frank Trust UK, of which Schloss was honorary president, said she died on Saturday in London, where she lived. Britain’s King Charles III said he was “privileged and proud” to have known Schloss, who cofounded the charitable trust to help young people challenge prejudice. “The horrors that she endured as a young woman are impossible to comprehend and yet she devoted the rest of her life to overcoming hatred and prejudice, promoting kindness, courage, understanding
‘DISRESPECTFUL’: Katie Miller, the wife of Trump’s most influential adviser, drew ire by posting an image of Greenland in the colors of the US flag, captioning it ‘SOON’ US President Donald Trump on Sunday doubled down on his claim that Greenland should become part of the US, despite calls by the Danish prime minister to stop “threatening” the territory. Washington’s military intervention in Venezuela has reignited fears for Greenland, which Trump has repeatedly said he wants to annex, given its strategic location in the arctic. While aboard Air Force One en route to Washington, Trump reiterated the goal. “We need Greenland from the standpoint of national security, and Denmark is not going to be able to do it,” he said in response to a reporter’s question. “We’ll worry about Greenland in
Tens of thousands of Filipino Catholics yesterday twirled white cloths and chanted “Viva, viva,” as a centuries-old statue of Jesus Christ was paraded through the streets of Manila in the nation’s biggest annual religious event. The day-long procession began before dawn, with barefoot volunteers pulling the heavy carriage through narrow streets where the devout waited in hopes of touching the icon, believed to hold miraculous powers. Thousands of police were deployed to manage crowds that officials believe could number in the millions by the time the statue reaches its home in central Manila’s Quiapo church around midnight. More than 800 people had sought
PERILOUS JOURNEY: Over just a matter of days last month, about 1,600 Afghans who were at risk of perishing due to the cold weather were rescued in the mountains Habibullah set off from his home in western Afghanistan determined to find work in Iran, only for the 15-year-old to freeze to death while walking across the mountainous frontier. “He was forced to go, to bring food for the family,” his mother, Mah Jan, said at her mud home in Ghunjan village. “We have no food to eat, we have no clothes to wear. The house in which I live has no electricity, no water. I have no proper window, nothing to burn for heating,” she added, clutching a photograph of her son. Habibullah was one of at least 18 migrants who died
RSS