Cuba: Corruption from head to foot

HAVANA, April 15 (Moisés Leonardo Rodríguez, Grupo Decoro / www.cubanet.org) - At least 26 persons, including the Provincial and the Economic Directors of the Internal Commerce Ministry, were arrested March 20 in Camagüey on suspicion of corruption by the Department of State Security.

Also arrested were the general managers of the Gran Antillana and La Vajilla stores and the warehouse manager of the latter, in a sweep meant to dismantle a net of highly-placed officials who were presumably misappropriating government resources.

Later searches of the homes of some of those arrested resulted in the confiscation of goods that were taken to the city's State Security headquarters.

All arrested remain in custody and can receive visits only every 15 days under the supervision of a State Security officer.

Word in the streets is that the ministry's Provincial Director had a house on one of the city's main thoroughfares, where he would warehouse ill-gotten marketable goods such as alcoholic beverages, food, and other items.

Did anybody check Castro's house to see what "ill-gotten marketable goods" he's got stockpiled?