On February 11,2024, Granma, the official newspaper of the Communist Party of Cuba, published a lengthy editorial that proclaimed “the prevention and confrontation of corruption, crime, illegalities and social indiscipline constitute a strategic priority for the leadership of the Party, the State, the Government and mass and social organizations; At the same time, its manifestations challenge us all and we must fight them in the most diverse trenches.”[1]
The editorial then attacked “the borderless tentacles of international organized crime and its multiple faces, with infinite channels of penetration and multiplication, [which] threaten the world and impact all countries.”
Next, the editorial castigated the U.S. with these words: “[T]he global economic crisis, worsened in the case of Cuba by a blockade without limits or scruples, encourages criminal conduct and violent behavior. The Government of the United States and extremist sectors of the counterrevolution encourage and manipulate these acts in their media offensive to propagate a scenario of insecurity, which they try to capitalize on in favor of their destabilizing purposes.” (Emphasis added.)
Then the editorial quoted the January 1, 2024, remarks of “Army General Raúl Castro Ruz, leader of the Revolution . . .: ‘The unity formed by the Party, the Government, the mass organizations and all of our people, and as part of this the combatants of “the Revolutionary Armed Forces and the Ministry of the Interior, is the shield against which, once again, all the enemy’s subversive plans will crash, which include everything from the systematic use of lies to terrorism.’” (Emphasis added.)
Nevertheless, Cuban government actions “have made it possible in recent years to discover, prevent and confront multiple and complicated types and criminal trends. This has been possible with greater rigor in legal, criminal and penitentiary treatment, especially in cases of defendants, accused or punished for crimes of high social harm.”
“Regardless of the firm decision to enforce the Law, whether by persuasion or, ultimately, by the application of established coercive measures, the conscious participation of everyone in this combat is unavoidable. This is how Army General Raúl Castro Ruz directed it during his speech at the First Ordinary Session of the VIII Legislature of the National Assembly of People’s Power, on July 7, 2013: ‘It is time for the worker and peasant groups, the students, young people, teachers and professors, our intellectuals and artists, journalists, religious entities, authorities, leaders and officials at every level, in short, all worthy Cubans, who undoubtedly constitute the majority, make the duty their own. to comply and enforce what is established, both in civic norms and in laws, provisions and regulations.’”
========================
[1] The PCC calls for a tough hand on crime and says that the US spreads a ‘scenario of insecurity’ in Cuba, Diario de Cuba (Feb. 12, 2024); Confronting crime, a strategic priority for all, Granma (Feb. 11, 2024).