Corruption in Cuba. Castro and Beyond by Sergio Díaz-Diquets, Jorge Pérez-López (review)

Book Reviews CORRUPTZON I N CUBA. CASTRO AND BEYOND. BYSERGIO D~Az-DIQUETS AND JORGE PEREZ-LOPEZ, AUSTIN: U OF TEXAS P, 2006, p.286, $21.95. In the last few years an ever-increasing literature has been published on Cuba’s transition once Fidel Castro is removed from the island’s political scene. Sergio Diaz-Diquets and Jorge Perez-Lopez not only add to this literature in their book Corruption in Cuba. Castro and Beyond but they also add a new, exciting dimension to it by examining the impact that corruption will have on the transition once it begins. The authors analyse both its shortterm and long-term effects on a post-Castro Cuba. Moreover, after a review of the general literature on corruption, a history of corruption in Cuba from the colonial period to the present day is provided. Such an in-depth analysis of this long time period is a considerable undertaking but Diaz-Diquets and Perez-Lopez make an excellent job of it. They conclude that corruption has been endemic in Cuba, and that it has been impossible to wage a successful campaign against corruption throughout the island’s history, regardless of the type of government in Havana. This, they believe, will make the impact of corruption on the transition in Cuba considerable. The argument of the endemic quality of corruption in the revolutionary period, and its impact onall aspects of everyday life,is particularly persuasive. A variety of factors are blamed for this with the all-encompassing role of the state, which has resulted in a reduction of electoral accountability, the lack of free and independent Trade Unions and media, and a weak civil society and legal framework. When this is coupled with the particularities that are found in socialist states, the argument becomes even stronger. Diaz-Diquets and Perez-Lopez also make excellent comparisons with the former socialist states in Eastern Europe and Soviet Union. In addition to this, the authors provide a consummate and extremely interesting study of the language or ’slang’that has appeared in Cuba, which is used in direct relation to everyday corruption on the island. This extends from resolver (to get by) to multando al cliente (overcharging) to multn (the skimming of goods by shopkeepers) to sociolismo. The fact that this distinct language, just to describe the various types of corruption, has evolved is the perfect illustration of the high level, and accepted nature, of corruption in revolutionary Cuba. The analysis offered by the authors on the many, and complicated, legal problems that will surface in a post-Castro Cuba is also very good and insightful. Paramount in this will be the highly complex situation regarding ownership of property and land expropriated in the first years of the revolution. Moreover, the detailed account of the help that Cuba will receive from various international organizations, including the World Bank and U.S. Agency for International Development, is also excellent. In relation to this, and using comparisons of transitions in other socialist states, Diaz-Diquets and Perez-Lopez suggest various scenarios and institutions that should be created in the short and long term that will help alleviate the problems that endemic corruption could cause for a post-Castro Cuba. The Latin Americanist, Spring 2007 At various stages of the book the authors provide examples of corruption in other societies and even state “Political corruption, to one degree or another, affects all nations, including the United States and other countries with democratic traditions” (210). This is undoubtedly correct and a good addition to the argument, but on reading the book the reader is left with the impression that corruption in Cuba from the colonial period to the revolutionary period is somehow worse than elsewhere in Latin America or the world. This is not to suggest that corruption did not, and does not exist, in Cuba; however, I feel it is important to provide this counterbalance. Corruption did exist throughout colonial Latin America, and various examples exist of corruption elsewhere in the region that would be comparable to that of Batista’s Cuba. Moreover, there are contemporary examples of governmental corruption in the West that are currently being investigated. Inadditiontothis, Diaz-Diquets and...