Havana Meets Guido: Transnational Criminal Organizations in Post-Castro Cuba

HAVANA MEETS GUIDO: TRANSNATIONAL CRIMINAL ORGANIZATIONS IN POST-CASTRO CUBA

GREGORY M. SCHECHTMAN

Contents

Page

PREFACE III

ABSTRACT IV

CUBA IN CONTEXT 1

U.S. - Cuban Interplay 1

Cuban National Power Structure 2

Fidel Castro 2

Fidelistas: Hardliners, Reformers and the Moderates 4

The Military 5

Cuba's significance to the U.S. today 6

Political Importance 7

Geostrategic Importance 8

An Un-Civil Society on the Brink 9

TRANSNATIONAL CRIME: A GROWING THREAT 12

Nailing Down Transnational Criminal Organizations 12

Globalization and Transnational Crime 14

Fertile Ground: Exacerbating Factors 16

Operating Style 16

Government Factors 17

Economic Factors 18

CUBA AFTER THE FALL: A TCO HAVEN? 20

Into the Abyss: The Demise of Cuba's Cult of Personality 20

Not All Windows Of Opportunity Are Clean 22

Communism's Legacy: A Criminal Garden 22

Economic Investment: A Two Sided Coin 23

'It's Just Business!" ... Encroaching Criminal Activities 24

Narcotics 25

Money Laundering 26

Human trafficking 27

CONCLUSION 28

Preface

I tackled the problem of Cuba and crime due to my fascination with the island and her leadership's ability to consistently tell the strongest nation on earth to go suck eggs--and get away with it. However I believe, like Ozymandius, Fidel Castro's time is up. In 2005,Cuba's economy is in trouble and there are rising domestic tensions rending the seams of her society. Fidel Castro is currently 77 years old and the end is nearing for the strongman to who has singularly welded the nation together for and kept communism at the center of Cuban politics for over four decades. His impending departure signals a turning point both for internal Cuban affairs, but also for the United States. Interestingly enough at the same time, the Department of State is saying, "Transnational organized crime is a cancer, spreading across the world .... Undermining democracy, disrupting free markets, draining national assets, and inhibit the development of stable societies. National and international criminal groups threaten the security of all nations." It the potential junction of these two forces on the island of Cuba that I found fascinating and drove the research into this paper. Cuba stands along side North Korea and China as the leftovers of the communist debacle. Joseph Stalin is dead ... long live George Washington! If only it were that easy.

Abstract

Cuba's economic and political landscapes are at a nexus. Currently, Cuba is in the grip of 15-year-economic depression and political struggle formed in the seeds of the USSR's demise. It is the premise of this paper that as Fidel Castro approaches the end of his life, Cuba's political environment will become unstable thereby its increasing its vulnerability to exploitation by transnational criminal organizations (TCOs) in search of new bases of operation for illegal activities, including drug trafficking, money laundering, and human trafficking. The U.S. faces the specter of a failing state 90 miles off the coast of Florida becoming a haven for TCOs.

Understanding the effect of globalization on criminal activity is a vital precursor to the US implementing effective policy to counter the TCOs. A holistic grasp is needed of the forces fostering transnational criminal activities, how these conditions exist in Cuba today, and how they will be exasperated upon Castro's death. Due to deep-seated anti-Americanism, that will not be quickly forgotten, any new government will not welcome interference from the U.S.

The United States needs to take an indirect approach to help: mobilizing the energies of Cuban Americans to do things at a level that the federal government cannot; supporting IGOs and NGOs as indirect cat's paws working agendas complementary; and looking at repealing legislation such as the Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act if and when it no longer aggressively serves America's interests. The terrorist-criminal connection is very close. U.S. is morally obligated to prevent TCO incursion into Cuba and do whatever it takes to prevent a future OPERATION CUBAN FREEDOM from ever happening.

Cuba in Context

"My name is Ozymandias, King of Kings" Look upon my works, ye Mighty, and Despair!" Nothing beside remains. Round the decay of that colossal wreck, boundless and bare The lone and level sands stretch far away...

Percy Bysshe Shelley

The poet Shelly wrote of Ozymandias as a reminder that all power is fleeting. He could just as easily written about modern communism, for the poem can be a powerful metaphor for Fidel Castro and the situation in Cuba today. Castro's nation is a reflection of his charismatic personality. For over 40 years, it has mirrored him. Yet, just as Ozymandias vainly bragged of power and yet still died, so too will Fidel. To grasp of wreckage Castro will leave behind and how it will make a fertile ground for the incursion of transnational criminal enterprises, one must first understand the past he has built upon and how Cuba is a nation on the brink of the abyss.

U.S. - Cuban Interplay

Cuba