Who is really running the Cuban government?

It’s obvious Cuba’s “president” is nothing more than a sock puppet, and Raul Castro, who has never possessed his brother’s brains or brawn, has always depended on others to guide him. So who is really calling the shots?

Roberto Alvarez Quiñones writes in Diario de Cuba (my translation):

Who is really running the Cuban government?

In Cuba and the rest of the world, it is not known with certainty who are the ones, besides the dictator Raúl Castro, is making the most important decisions of the government and the Communist Party today, above the “president” of the Republic and the first secretary of the Communist Party, and the Political Bureau and the National Assembly, aggravating daily hunger, extreme poverty, blackouts, and on top of that, sinking the country into an unprecedented governance crisis.

And I say “who are the ones,” in plural, besides Castro II, because while his brother Fidel made all the decisions without consulting anyone, Castro II cannot do the same. He is a man of diminished intelligence and intellectual mediocrity and generally does not decide anything without discussing it with his closest cronies. There are witnesses to the differences in personality between the two, with Fidel getting upset because, in difficult moments or crises, Raúl suddenly disappeared and took refuge in alcohol.

In short, it is not known how the leadership of Raulism and the rest of the surviving gerontocracy from the Sierra Maestra is exercised in practice, nor the other military leaders who constitute the supreme power in Cuba, a kind of Military Junta.

The problem is political, a villainy of Castro II and the historical figures.

It is not reasonable to assume that all members of the Government, the high bureaucracy of the State, the CCP, and the National Assembly are “dumb as a post,” a bunch of incompetents incapable of realizing the seriousness of the situation. And I do not believe that at this point there is anyone still unconvinced that socialism is a colossal absurdity.

Certainly, the incompetence of Miguel Díaz-Canel, Prime Minister Manuel Marrero, and the majority of the ministers, members of the Political Bureau, the state apparatus, and the National Assembly, starting with Esteban Lazo, is evident. They do not have sufficient preparation or talent to assume these responsibilities. But the issue goes beyond that.

We are facing a political problem, not an institutional one. It is not the leaders of the Government or the CCP who can make the important political decisions, which are those related to any profound change in the country. But they also do not pressure those “above.”

Díaz-Canel feels comfortable with his privilege as “president” of the Republic, even though he does not make any crucial decisions, neither as head of the CCP. Furthermore, according to the Constitution, he is officially the supreme commander of the Armed Forces. Does he believe it? Do Raúl Castro and General Alvaro López Miera, Minister of the FAR, accept it?

Can Díaz-Canel, with all his constitutional power, abolish the state monopoly Acopio, or privatize state-owned enterprises, or restore a market economy on the island?

Marrero is not a prime minister either, but Díaz-Canel’s assistant to face the population, convene meetings to scold bureaucrats and workers, and blame the “blockade” for everything. Both are very comfortable with the public administration and political façade for propaganda and export. They do not want political changes because they would stop living “the life of Riley.”

In general, the fact that the leaders of the Government or the CCP cannot make the necessary major political decisions does not exempt them from guilt. And I quote the eternal José Martí: “To silently contemplate a crime is to commit it.” Those who comprise the subordinate power in Cuba are accomplices to those making political decisions. They not only witness a crime but are authors themselves. They are tearing apart piece by piece what remains of the Cuban nation.

Supreme power, reactionary generals living “the sweet life.”

And who are their superiors? In addition to Castro II, there are historical military figures in their nineties, eighties, and seventies, and a few who are neither historical nor very old. They are the bosses above the law, above good and evil. They are accountable to no one and have million-dollar bank accounts (under the names of frontmen) abroad.

At the top of this brotherhood, alongside Castro II, are Ramiro Valdés (92 years old), José R. Machado Ventura (93), and General López Miera (80 years old, considered by the dictator as an adopted son). These four horsemen of the Castroist apocalypse (Hunger, Pestilence, Death, and War) undoubtedly are the ones most determined not to “betray” Fidel Castro’s Stalinist legacy by returning to capitalism.

They are backed by the other three historical generals with three stars, Ramón Espinosa, Joaquín Quintas Solás (deputy ministers of MINFAR), and Roberto Legrá Sotolongo (Chief of Staff of the FAR), as well as General Lázaro Alvarez Casas, Minister of the Interior. And Colonel Alejandro Castro, the dictator’s son, the Castroist Fouché, who watches over everyone and “knows” something about them.

Also, other comrades are the Minister of the Interior, executives of the military-business elite GAESA, the heads of the country’s three armies, the heads of Counterintelligence and Castroist Intelligence. There may be other members of the Military Junta, making it very difficult to give figures. It is also a ghostly entity, as it has no institutional body. Their common denominator is that they are all reactionary and anti-liberal. Undoubtedly, this is the primary requirement for membership.

However, this is not entirely new, although Castro II has magnified it. While Lenin and Stalin in Russia laid the foundations of political power in the Communist Party, in Cuba, Fidel Castro entrenched it in the Armed Forces, with himself as the absolute monarch, as commander in chief.

In Cuba, revolutionary political power emerged from the Rebel Army of the July 26th Movement, not the other way around, as established by Marxist-Leninist orthodoxy.

Let’s remember that from the shadows, for decades, the illegal “Coordination and Support Team for the Commander-in-Chief” governed in Cuba, created by Castro I above the Executive Power, the Legislative Power, and even the Political Bureau of the CCP.

Blaming ministers for the economic disaster is mocking the people.

And here fits the farce of the recent dismissals of ministers, including the Minister of Economy and Planning, Alejandro Gil, who is indeed blamed for worsening the crisis and the disaster of the Cuban economy. While it is true that Gil is irresponsible and an opportunist, no one doubts that, blaming him for the economic disaster is a distortion of reality. Since 1959, there have been 14 Economy Ministers (including the current one), and all have been dismissed (except for Osvaldo Martínez, who resigned due to health problems), blamed for mismanaging the economy.

It is obvious that there is no longer a coherent system of government in Cuba. But that does not mean that if there were, there would not be a humanitarian crisis like the current one on the island because the only possible solution is not adopted, the return to capitalism.

Regarding the devastating crisis that causes so much suffering on the island, in my view, this has two primary causes and one additional one.

The two fundamental ones are: 1) Castro II and his Military Junta stubbornly refuse to release the productive forces and restore citizen freedoms; and 2) the leaders of the Government and the CCP are freeloaders and opportunists who do not want to lose their privileges, they want to continue enjoying “the sweet life” and not lose it by proposing liberal and realistic solutions to those who “call the shots.”

A third, more hypothetical cause, is that those in the Government who could develop real, more liberal economic proposals possibly do not dare to present them to the dictator and his cronies because they know they will be rejected, and the perks and easy life they have now would end.

With famine almost declared (the regime asks the UN for milk, and there is no bread anymore), I believe it is more important than ever to accuse Castro II and his cronies of crimes against humanity.