Havana Meets Guido: Transnational Criminal Organizations in Post-Castro Cuba Gregory M. Schechtman

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