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POLITICS-CUBA:
Crawling with Speculation
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA, (IPS) - While the staff of the
cabinet ministries set to undergo major
reforms are gearing themselves for what lies
ahead, the people of Cuba, from academics to
pensioners, are speculating about the extent
of the recently announced changes and hoping
they will bring improvements to their lives
and to living standards in general.
Meanwhile, the official daily of the
Communist Party, Granma, published an
article Wednesday in which former president
Fidel Castro clarified that the major
cabinet shakeup announced Monday has his
full support.
The column also set off new conjecture as to
why powerful figures like former foreign
minister Felipe Pérez Roque and former
cabinet chief Carlos Lage were unexpectedly
removed from those posts.
Referring to them only as "the two most
frequently mentioned," the convalescent
Castro wrote that "the honey of power, for
which they had made no sacrifices, awoke in
them ambitions that led them to play an
undignified role. The external enemy was
filled with illusions for them."
By contrast, the statement in which the
Council of State announced the ministerial
shuffle Monday consistently used the
respectful term "compañero" and the verb
"released" from their posts, rather than
"dismissed."
"I told you yesterday that this was a ‘truene’,"
one neighbour remarked to another. Leaning
out of their windows, the two women lowered
their voices as a group of tourists walked
by.
In Cuban slang, a public employee who has
been "tronado" has been "thunderously"
sacked and put on the "pajama plan" – in
other words, sent home.
"Fidel’s reflection reveals that there were
problems with Lage and Pérez Roque, but
provides no real explanations. We will have
to wait for things to be clarified further,"
an academic source who asked not to be
identified told IPS.
Less cautious, a young university professor
commented that the removals came as a big
surprise because "many people in Cuba
thought they (the officials in question)
were set to govern in the future."
"Now, all of us would like more
information," said another professor.
"Fidel’s accusation is very serious."
The 57-year-old Lage is a member of the
governing Communist Party’s powerful
Politburo and was reelected as vice
president of the Council of State in
February 2008. Pérez Roque, 43, is a member
of the Council of State and of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party.
In the past, both officials formed part of
the "Commander-in-Chief’s Coordination and
Support Group", a government team made up of
younger Communist Party leaders that was in
charge of overseeing and implementing
projects and initiatives considered top
priority by Fidel Castro, who due to his
failing health was permanently replaced as
president in February 2008 by his younger
brother Raúl.
The special group functioned parallel to the
cabinet of ministers.
Observers suppose that as part of Raúl
Castro’s process of streamlining the
government’s institutions, such parallel
structures no longer have a raison d’etre.
And it is in that light that the
restructuring of the cabinet - which
includes the merging of several ministries,
to concentrate efforts and resources and
boost efficacy - should be understood, they
say.
In the view of the younger Castro brother,
Cuba’s institutions are one of the "pillars
of invulnerability of the revolution, in the
political terrain." In that sense, one of
the decisions that was most widely welcomed
was to "release" Otto Rivero from his
responsibilities as vice president of the
Council of Ministers.
Rivero was in charge of the so-called
"battle of ideas", a plan created to
"perfect" Cuban socialism in a number of
areas, which included programmes that have
now been put under the aegis of the
"respective investing bodies," according to
the official statement.
"The new government wants the ministries to
truly fulfill their roles. These parallel
bodies created a dangerous duality of power,
concentrated in people who did not have to
answer to the Council of Ministers - not to
mention the fact that they opened a door to
the chaotic use of funds," an academic with
experience in the matter commented to IPS.
While some researchers were somewhat
sceptical about the government reforms put
into motion by Raúl Castro on Monday, the
source who spoke at length with IPS
expressed enthusiasm, and said he hoped that
under the new Minister of Economy and
Planning, Marino Murillo, Cuban state
enterprises would become more competitive,
face fewer hurdles and receive greater
incentives.
He also applauded the merging of the
Ministries of Foreign Trade and Foreign
Investment, under Minister Rodrigo Malmierca.
The academic described Malmierca, who up to
Monday was at the helm of the Ministry of
Foreign Investment, as "a person with
‘frequent flier miles’, who knows how the
economy and world politics work."
The source, who asked to remain anonymous,
said "Cuba is betting on real insertion into
the global economy," and for that reason it
must overcome internal problems and
eliminate, for example, regulations and laws
that lead to "the constant undersupply of
the country’s stores" and that stand in the
way of the export of domestically produced
goods by Cuban companies.
And while some analysts have criticised the
appointment of several armed forces officers
to the cabinet, arguing that it will usher
in a degree of "militarisation" of the
government, he said he disagreed.
With respect to the naming of army general
Salvador Pardo Cruz – the former head of the
Military Industry Union – as Minister of the
Steel Industry, he said it was a good
decision, pointing out that the military
managed to upgrade and modernise their
equipment based on local initiative,
resources and organisation, with a strategy
that could be transferred to the steel
industry, which he said is currently "undercapitalised"
due to a lack of coherence in the ministry’s
policies.
No less strategic was the appointment of
José Miyar at the head of the Ministry of
Science, Technology and the Environment,
along with the transfer of the "scientific
pole" - comprised of Cuba’s main scientific
research institutions – to the ministry. (It
currently answers directly to the Council of
State). "No one knows more about science in
Cuba than he does," said the source.
That decision also eliminates the unequal
treatment received by the research
institutions grouped on the west side of
Havana and other parts of the "scientific
pole" around the country.
"I think Chomi (the name by which people in
Cuba know Miyar) will bring about a shift
among scientists and science, a sector that
has been called upon to become a dynamic
productive force in the country," the expert
said.
Cuba’s biotech industry, which began to be
developed in 1998, is generating more than
300 million dollars a year in exports,
according to unofficial reports. And
countries that have good relations with Cuba
have expressed a growing interest in joint
operations that would allow the sharing and
even the transfer of know-how.
"I think Cuba is making progress towards the
creation of conditions to make the leap
forward and pull out of the hole, and that
it will become an efficient country, where
work will once again be the source of social
recognition, and which will be inserted in a
diverse world, based on its own diversity,
and that Raúl will have the merit of
launching this crusade," the source added.
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