ID:61899
Date:2006-04-26 18:34:00
06HAVANA8986

VZCZCXRO5713
PP RUEHFL RUEHKW RUEHLA RUEHROV RUEHSR
DE RUEHUB #8986/01 1161834
ZNY CCCCC ZZH
P 261834Z APR 06
FM USINT HAVANA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC PRIORITY 6107
INFO RUEHZL/EUROPEAN POLITICAL COLLECTIVE
RUEHWH/WESTERN HEMISPHERIC AFFAIRS DIPL POSTS
RUEHMD/AMEMBASSY MADRID 0076
RUCOWCV/CCGDSEVEN MIAMI FL
RUESDM/JTLO MIAMI FL
RHEHNSC/NSC WASHDC
RUMIAAA/USCINCSO MIAMI FL
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 03 HAVANA 008986 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/24/2016 
TAGS: PGOV, SOCI, ECON, CU 
SUBJECT: (CUBA IS) A STATE ON THE TAKE 
 
REF: HAVANA 8769 
 
HAVANA 00008986  001.2 OF 003 
 
 
Classified By: MICHAEL E. PARMLY FOR REASONS 1.4 b/d 
 
1. (C) Summary: Castro has spent the past five months 
battling corruption in a country where trickery has become 
a way of life.  Because most Cubans work for the state, 
the entire system - from petty officials to Castro's 
closest advisors - is rife with corrupt practices.  Given 
state control over all resources, corruption and thievery 
have become one and the same.  Corrupt practices also 
include bribery, misuse of state resources and accounting 
shenanigans.  In its post-Soviet incarnation, Cuba has 
become a state on the take.  End Summary. 
 
From Petty to Grande 
-------------------- 
 
2. (U) In October 2005, Castro embarked on a crusade 
against corruption that shows no signs of letting up (ref 
A).  The concerted campaign has disrupted the lives of 
many Cubans living off their abilities to "resolver" (a 
word that implies everything from simply finding a 
creative solution to outright stealing).  Fifteen years 
after the collapse of the Soviet bloc, "resolver" has 
become a way of life in Cuba.  Economic desperation 
combined with totalitarian control has resulted in a state 
system riddled by corruption from top to bottom. 
 
Bribes 
------ 
 
3. (U) Bribes are a common means of getting around 
suffocating controls.  For example, Cubans are only 
allowed to swap housing ("permutar") if both residences 
are of equal value.  Money is not allowed to exchange 
hands in the transaction, but often does.  If a Cuban 
mother swaps a small apartment for a large one in a trade 
that obviously involved compensation, she must also be 
prepared to pay a GOC housing official several hundred 
dollars to look the other way.  An additional fee may be 
required to push the deal through in a timely fashion.  As 
always, Cubans must tread carefully; accidentally 
propositioning a clean official - or worse, a strident 
revolutionary - could result in disaster. 
 
4. (U) Block organizations (CDRs) have declined in 
prominence over the years (to the point where few Cubans 
have any interest in becoming CDR President), but still 
maintain control over the distribution of goods.  On rare 
occasions, these goods are valuable.  When televisions or 
refrigerators become available through the state system, 
CDR Officers are famous for giving preferential access to 
two groups:  Those that maintain good revolutionary 
credentials... and those that can afford it. 
 
5. (U) Bribes are also key to getting good jobs (good jobs 
being those with opportunities to "resolver").  For 
example, a job with access to a fuel tank (gas station or 
other outlet) reportedly costs thousands of dollars, while 
a job in tourism (with access to tips) might cost in the 
hundreds.  An unemployed Cuban told P/E Officer that a job 
with elite state firm CIMEX (The Import-Export 
Corporation) would cost him up to 500 USD. 
 
6. (U) Cuban police officers are famous for taking bribes. 
They pull drivers over for myriad transgressions, then 
describe their "sick child."  An Italian tourist told P/E 
Officer that every time a police officer pulled him over, 
it was always the officer's "birthday."  The police are so 
corrupt that the GOC regularly fills their ranks with 
unsullied recruits from the East.  As time passes, the new 
crop becomes as corrupt as the old, and a fresh batch is 
brought in to replace them. 
 
Misuse of State Resources 
------------------------- 
 
7. (U) Cash is not abundant in Cuba, such that bribes 
sometimes take a back seat to bartering, exchanging 
favors, and "tit for tat" deals.  A Cuban might not enjoy 
control over anything easily stolen or sold on the black 
market, but putting resources to other uses can be 
lucrative.  Transportation is a prime example.  As every 
Cuban knows, anyone behind the wheel of a state vehicle 
(whether truck, bus, car or train) earns two incomes: a 
 
HAVANA 00008986  002.2 OF 003 
 
 
pittance from the state, plus additional income 
transporting people or goods on the side.  In another 
example, a Cuban woman told P/E officer how she finally 
managed to get her tooth capped successfully by paying 
hard currency at an underground dental clinic, staffed by 
health ministry dentists and outfitted with equipment 
stolen from the state. 
 
8. (U) Certain sectors, including shipping, tourism, 
construction and food are notorious for generalized theft 
and corruption.  For example, there is a thriving black 
market in cement, paint and wood.  Or as one Cuban 
commented (in response to Vice President Carlos Lage's 
2005 promise to build 10,000 new housing units), "the GOC 
can't build anything because it is simply impossible to 
collect enough supplies in one place."  The ration system, 
which leaves bulk foods under the supervision of bodega 
employees, is also notorious for theft and corruption.  As 
mentioned above, the housing office, or "Vivienda," is 
also famous for corruption. 
 
9. (U) In Cuba's so-called "productive" sectors, much 
wheeling and dealing goes on behind the scenes as state 
managers swap goods, concoct inventories, fabricate 
receipts, and deal in imaginary resources.  They are aided 
by an accounting system that equates the Cuban Peso (CP) 
with the Cuban Convertible Peso (CUC) on paper, though the 
real exchange rate is 26 to 1.  (For example, some 
official state purchases are made in CUCs while others are 
made in CPs.)  To aid in the confusion, Cuban managers and 
accountants still track their accounts with paper and 
pencils.  The resulting morass of numbers is so 
incomprehensible that even "clean" managers are forced to 
play accounting tricks in order to do their jobs. 
 
10. (U) Some state installations are run by de facto 
"mafias."  One Cuban told P/E officer about the manager of 
a bread distribution center who put his friends in key 
jobs.  He eventually came to control an entire chain of 
state bakeries. 
 
Power and Position 
------------------ 
 
11. (C) The GOC stopped giving licenses to new paladars 
(home-based restaurants) several years ago, raising 
questions as to what the remaining operations had done to 
stay open.  An American specialist on the topic posited 
that all upscale paladars were in some way "connected." 
For example, a USINT officer outside the XXXXXXXXXXXX paladar 
XXXXXXXXXXXX spotted the supposedly "self-employed" owner drive 
up in a car with Ministry of the Interior (MININT) plates. 
A one-table paladar in the Santa Fe neighborhood (known as 
the "fish paladar") reportedly enjoys an elite clientele - 
Raul Castro.  In these days of heightened state control, 
merely bribing inspectors is not enough to stay open. 
 
12. (U) The benefits of holding a position of power within 
the GOC can be lucrative.  A Swiss businessman told P/E 
officer that Cuban managers take kickbacks for awarding 
large contracts to foreign companies and then deposit 
those kickbacks in banks abroad.  "Just like everywhere in 
the world, a million dollar contract gets you 100,000 in 
the bank," he commented.  These state managers are not so 
much members of the revolutionary elite, but rather 
pragmatists who have carved out a space for themselves 
within an otherwise rigid system.  The former head of the 
Tourism Ministry might serve as an example - he was 
dismissed in 2004 due to "serious mistakes relating to 
control" and replaced with a military general. 
 
13. (C) Separate from this elite crowd of entrepreneurs 
stand Castro's cadres of regime faithfuls, some of whom 
are widely rumored to be corrupt (such as Castro clan 
insider General Julio Casas Regueiro).  Last year, Battle 
of Ideas Head Otto Rivero (a Castro protege) almost lost 
his job due to a corruption scandal.  Battle of Ideas 
personnel were rumored to be dipping into the pie at all 
levels, from accounting shenanigans to making off with 
food and television sets destined for the "Free the Five" 
campaign. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
14. (C) Because the state controls - or tries to control - 
 
HAVANA 00008986  003.2 OF 003 
 
 
all aspects of life in Cuba, theft and corruption have 
become one and the same.  The hotel manager who 
appropriates foodstuffs is both corrupt (he uses his state 
job for personal gain) and a thief (he steals).  The more 
corruption grows, the more Castro tightens control, and 
the more Cubans turn to corruption to get what they want. 
The GOC leadership is well aware of the problem, but 
Castro can't seem to make peace with it.  As one local 
diplomat ruminated, "Castro leads a saintly life, but 
saints are special because they are rare."  And so the 
Comandante continues his struggle to wipe out corruption, 
seemingly oblivious to its irreversibility as long as 
profitable activity is illegal, individual success is 
cause for suspicion, and old-fashioned hard work gets you 
nowhere. 
 
PARMLY