Firm Hand and Zero Tolerance in Cuba: This is What the Government Says

The Cuban government calls on the General Prosecutor’s Office (FGR) to confront corruption with a firm hand and zero tolerance, official sources indicate.

According to the official government website, the President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, made this call to prosecutors during the meeting to review the FGR’s work results for the year 2023.

At the mentioned meeting, Díaz-Canel addressed the issue of corruption and crime, scourges that have flooded Cuban society in recent decades, and insisted that it must be a constant concern for those who enforce the law.

He added that zero tolerance must be the stance to confront these situations and be able to eradicate them.

As a strategy to pave the way toward a less corrupt and criminal society, the law must first be enforced, indicated the Cuban president, but also those who fulfill that role must be morally upright individuals so that the population trusts their performance.

Finally, he also emphasized the need for accountability and making all the information the people need public.

These statements by the Cuban president are meaningful, and it would be an overwhelming achievement to reduce the levels of corruption that exist on the island at all levels, but it is indeed a very tangled plot.

From the accusations of profit-making by leaders and their relatives who boast a millionaire life inside and outside the country, from the supposed front businesses that benefit them, from the lack of control and inactivity of those in charge, to the lower layers where other major crimes abound.

The increasingly frequent femicides, assaults, robberies, and aggression in the streets, the theft and slaughter of livestock, and the use of illicit substances especially among the youth, reveal a society eaten away by corruption.

And among these issues, there is a lack of official figures, press reports, detailed statistics to the population, and much remains under the thick curtain of governmental confidentiality.

Indeed, a firm hand and zero tolerance are needed in Cuba, as Díaz-Canel indicated, but it should be a measure applied at all levels.

Perhaps then Cuban society will return to a time when going out was not a risk and living was a beautiful song hummed on the corners.