HAVANA, CUBA. – Over the weekend, there was no other talk in Havana other than the blow-up of the former Minister of the Economy, Alejandro Gil. On the sidewalks, in the churches, at bus stops, in the many small shops trying not to go bankrupt, literally everywhere, people talked about it. If the government’s objective was to divert popular attention to Gil’s fall from grace, it succeeded. But if its intention was to make him the sole catalyst for the anger —abundant and dangerous— that Cubans exude, driven mad by power outages lasting up to fifteen consecutive hours, it fell short, and greatly so.
Instead of being satisfied with the demise of Gil alone, Cubans, who compare the current scandal in the upper echelons with case No. 1 of 1989, are asking when the other responsible heads will roll, because there is no doubt in anyone’s mind that Gil was heavily involved in a scam only with the consent of other criminals who are at his same level or above him.
If the regime believes that it will appease public opinion by sacrificing the owners of some successful small and medium-sized enterprises (MIPYME), accusing them and exposing their crimes on television thanks to the support they received from the former Minister of the Economy, they should know that Cubans have watched this movie several times.
The corruption of the regime’s officials is an open secret, not only because Díaz-Canel’s administration is the most inefficient and shoddy in the history of Cuba, but also because nothing else can be expected from people who manage businesses that are not audited by the General Comptroller of the Republic, people who handle public funds as they see f