For Gladys Bejerano, Comptrellor General of Cuba, the most noted corruption case in the country in decades, that of former Deputy Prime Minister and former Minister of Economy Alejandro Gil, felt like a “treayal.”
The top auditor of ministries and state companies of the socialist country highlights in an interview with EFE the “connotations” of the scandal, becoming the first senior Cuban official to talk about Gil since the investigation was announced two months ago.
“It hurts and hurts a lot because one thinks as a companion – and the people, as a Cuban – that a person who has been at that level, who has been handling the situations, the sacrifices that have had to be made,.. That he doesn’t have an attitude in correspondence, one really feels it as a betrayal, as something that is not the right thing, and that’s how we all feel. But there is moral and there is courage to face it,” he says.
Bejerano, 77, has been in charge of the Office of the Comptroller General and twenty years old. He advocates extracting “teachings” from this “sadly negative lesson.”
Gil was dismissed as Minister of Economy on February 2 without public explanations and on March 7 the president of Cuba, Miguel Díaz-Canel, announced that he was accused of “serious errors.” He spoke, without details, of “corruption”, “simulation” and “insensitivity.”
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“Every time there has been an event, it has been made public. I can assure you that,” says this member of the central committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC, the only legal one), convinced that “sooner than later and to the extent of being objective” “all the information” will be provided.
He emphasizes that the Cuban system does not minimize corruption “neither for the amount nor because it is from below or above,” although he understands that this case has “more meaning.” He clarifies that the investigation into Gil did not start from the Office of the Comptroller General.
Bejerano recognizes that the crisis has increased corruption in Cuba somewhat because “there is a greater need” and a shortage of “everything,” although it “does not justify.” Some people, he points out, “give in to the black market” and others take advantage, “even cruelly.”
It indicates that 76% of the illegalities detected occur “at the base level” and that its “battle” is to reduce them to “zero”, for a question of “principles” and “convictions” of the revolution.
“People don’t fall into parachute corruption. It’s a process: corruption is decomposition. It is a process of loss of values, of self-esteem, of self-respect (…). There are others that are for self-sufficiency, for vanity, for arrogance,” he describes.
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Bejerano admits that 23% of the country’s control systems have deficiencies, mainly due to lack of technical or human capabilities (only 60% of the positions of the Office of the Comptroller General are filled): “The controls are not at the level” that the Comptroller’s Office wants and that the country, the Government and the PCC need, he says.
He also explains that the GAESA business conglomerate, of the Armed Forces, is not under his supervision. This state group – which includes telecommunications, almost the entire tourism sector, remittances, import and distribution firms, banks, gas stations, real estate and other businesses – is the main contribution to the gross domestic product (GDP).
He argues that GAESA has “superior discipline and organization” for its decades of business experience and that the Office of the Comptroller’s Office concentrates “forces” where “advances” are needed.
About the link between corruption and the growing inequalities in the country, Bejerano links it to the emergence of the private sector and points out that some people have more because they work and “have results,” but believes that there are also “illegalities.”
“We are not going to admit either state or private individuals who commit such crimes and who offend and mistreat the people. That can’t be allowed: it’s not what we want, it’s not the model. We want honest, fighting and hardworking people to be able to have their business in order, fulfilling their obligations to the treasury, to society,” he replies.
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Regarding the execution of the budget, also the competence of the Comptroller’s Office, it goes on the set that so far this year “income was fulfilled” and “expenses were reduced.” “There is a behavior, we could say, favorable,” he says, although he often points out that “it is not that the problem is already solved” because the public deficit is “quite high.”
Trump appoints Stallone, Voight, and Gibson as special ambassadors to Hollywood
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump announced on Thursday the appointment of actors Sylvester Stallone (‘Rocky’) and Jon Voight (‘Midnight Cowboy’), as well as actor and director Mel Gibson (‘Braveheart’) as special ambassadors to the “very problematic” Hollywood.
“They will help me as special envoys to make Hollywood, which has lost many overseas businesses in the last four years, COME BACK BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRONGER THAN EVER,” he posted on his social media platform, Truth Social.
The Republican lamented all the “problems” he claims Hollywood faces and created this role with the aim of improving the situation from a business perspective.
“These three talented men will be my eyes and ears. I will do whatever they suggest,” he said.
Stallone had previously described Trump as the second George Washington, the first U.S. president (1789–1797) and one of the nation’s founding fathers, during a dinner after his victory in the November presidential elections, where he served as the master of ceremonies.
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Meanwhile, Gibson attacked Trump’s rival, Vice President Kamala Harris, accusing her of having “the IQ of a fence.”
The Republican leader will be sworn in as president on January 20 on the steps of the U.S. Capitol, succeeding Democrat Joe Biden.
Latin American and Caribbean diplomats voice concern over U.S. mass deportation plan
Diplomatic chiefs from ten Latin American and Caribbean countries expressed their “serious concern” over the announcement of a mass deportation of migrants, a measure they consider incompatible with human rights, according to a joint statement released this Friday.
The statement, which does not attribute the measure to any specific country, refers to the announcement made by U.S. President-elect Donald Trump, who has promised to carry out the largest foreign deportation operation in the history of the nation once he takes office next Monday. “The announcements of mass deportations are a serious cause for concern, especially due to their incompatibility with the fundamental principles of human rights and their failure to effectively address the structural causes of migration,” the statement said, released by Mexico’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (SRE).
The signing countries—Brazil, Belize, Colombia, Cuba, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, and Venezuela (almost all migrant-sending nations)—also committed to “defend the human rights of all migrants.”
This includes “rejecting the criminalization of migrants at all stages of the migration cycle” and “protecting them as a priority from transnational organized crime that profits from migration,” the document adds.
Noboa once again entrusts the Vice President of Ecuador to the vice president he appointed by decree
The President of Ecuador, Daniel Noboa, returned this Thursday to delegate – for the second time – the Presidency to the Secretary of Public Administration and Cabinet of the Presidency Cynthia Gellibert, whom he himself appointed by decree vice president in charge, in the face of the open confrontation he maintains with the vice president, Verónica Abad.
As he did last week, Noboa again issued a decree in which he announces that he is absent from the Presidency from Thursday to Sunday, to make an electoral campaign in search of his re-election in the elections of February 9, and during that period of time it will be Gellibert who will be in charge of the head of the State.
This action of the president of Ecuador is a matter of evaluation by the ordinary and constitutional justice at the request of the vice president, Verónica Abad, who claims to assume the presidential functions during the full period of the electoral campaign, in which according to the Constitution the head of state must ask for leave for being a candidate for re-election.
In his decree, Noboa argues that, although the Constitution determines that the Vice Presidency must assume the head of State in the event of the absence of the president, this “is not limited to the elected vice-president, but to the person who to date is exercising the functions of the Vice Presidency.”
Before appointing Gellibert as vice president in charge by decree, Noboa sent Abad to the Ecuadorian Embassy in Turkey, after a judge annulled the five-month suspension that the same Government had imposed on him. Until now, the vice president remains in Ecuador to claim to be the one who temporarily assumes the Presidency.
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The new period of Gellibert with presidential powers began at 18:00 local time (23:00 GMT) this Thursday and is scheduled to end at 22:00 (03:00 GMT) next Sunday, time at which the debate between presidential candidates is expected to end where Noboa is summoned to participate.
After the debate, Noboa plans to travel to Washington to attend Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, according to the Ecuadorian Presidency.
After the first assignment of the Presidency to Gellibert, Abad denounced a “coup d’état” and urged the Organization of American States (OAS) to apply the Democratic Charter, considering that the constitutional order had been broken because it had not received the presidential powers, as contemplated in the Ecuadorian Constitution.
In addition, he filed a protection action with which he seeks that the Justice annul the decrees in which Noboa appointed Gellibert as vice president in charge and delegated the Presidency to him. A court admitted the appeal on Friday, but did not accept some precautionary measures that Abad also asked for to suspend those effects immediately.
Controversies like this will be part of the analysis and evaluation of the electoral observation mission (EOM) of the European Union (EU) for the Ecuadorian elections, as anticipated on Wednesday by its leader, Spanish MEP Gabriel Mato.
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The confrontation between Noboa and Abad began in the electoral campaign for the second round of elections for the extraordinary elections of 2023, and was reflected when he assumed the charges, when in one of his first decisions, the president sent the vice president to Israel as ambassador, with the mission of seeking peace between Israelis and Palestinians.
Abad has denounced Noboa for alleged political gender violence and has accused her of leading a harassment against her to force her to resign and thus avoid having to delegate the Presidency to her during the electoral campaign period, which runs from January 5 to February 6.
The titular vice president has also accused the Government of being behind the corruption investigation in the offices of the Vice Presidency that involves her son in a case where the Prosecutor’s Office also sought to indict Abad, but the National Assembly (Parliament) voted mostly against lifting the jurisdiction, although the ruling party voted in favor.
The general elections in Ecuador are called for Sunday, February 9 and, according to the polls published so far, Noboa and the candidate of the correismo Luisa González appear as prominent favorites to move on to the second round.
