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The
Comandante's Reserves The lack of transparency of Fidel Castro's government in Cuba is very well known. Information about the inner workings of the government, however, is becoming available, though in a fragmented way as high Cuban government officials defect and freely report their experiences in Cuba. The information reported in this special edition of the Cuba Monthly Economic Report comes from just such a source - Jesús M. Fernández, who left Cuba in May 1996 after holding important positions in the Cuban government, including Secretary of the Food Committee of the Cabinet and Secretary of the Foreign Exchange Commission of the Food Group. The July 28, 1997, issue of Forbes magazine lists Fidel Castro as one of the richest people in the world, with a net worth of $1.4 billion. Forbes' estimate of the funds that Castro controls may be low, however; it merely assigns to him 10 percent of an estimate of Cuba's gross domestic product. In fact, in addition to controlling the Cuban economy, Castro possesses and personally controls international bank accounts and large amounts of gold and commodities, and has done so virtually from the start of the Revolution. "Fidel's Checking Account" What today is referred to in the innermost circles of the government as "the Comandante's reserves" had its origin in 1959 in the famous "Fidel's checking account." From this account - which proved to be an administrative nightmare to Cuban fiscal authorities, being subject to no control or budget - Fidel Castro drew funds with which to satisfy all manner of needs and requests throughout the island, instantly creating an image of himself as a powerful benefactor. It was then that it was decided to create an account in Castro's name, not related to his official titles, that he would personally manage without giving an accounting to anyone. This account, which was in pesos, served as precedent for later creating a dollar account to finance international transactions, primarily of a political nature. This dollar account was used to finance subversion in other countries and propaganda activities such as the meeting of the Tricontinental Assembly. Though the amounts involved are not known, the account was financed from state funds and from the forced exchange of dollars from Cuban workers at the American Naval Base in Guantánamo. In that account were also deposited foreign funds whose purpose was to finance insurrections in Latin America. In 1970, it became known that the proceeds from the sale of cattle to Canada - the intermediary for which was Merejo Curbelo, brother of the Minister of Agriculture, Comandante Raúl Curbelo - were deposited in Castro's account. The magnitude of the sale has been estimated at between $5 million and $10 million. Sales of cattle have continued to this day and have included Venezuela as a buyer. The cattle come from another of Fidel Castro's exclusive reserves. which contains some 50,000 head of cattle. Also in 1970, Emilio Quesada Rey, ex-colleague of Fidel Castro at the University of Havana, created an integrated system of reserves under Castro's exclusive control. These reserves consisted of automobiles, trucks, tractors, and other wheeled vehicles, and general construction equipment. By then, reserves of housing, also managed by Fidel Castro, were in existence. From these reserves Castro assigned resources to productive enterprises without any sort of plan and provided gifts to many of his collaborators and allies, both at home and abroad. The Comandante's Reserves In 1976, the State Committee for the Provision of Technical Material was created under the direction of Provisions of the Central Planning Board (JUCEPLAN). Irma Sánchez, a member of the Central Planning Board, was placed in charge of the new committee as Minister-President. The new committee would become the most powerful organ of the Cuban government, since it centralized control of the country's physical resources, with the exception of food stuffs, clothing, and shoes. The resources it managed included equipment and machinery, petroleum, and construction and raw materials. The new committee expanded the reserves personally controlled by Fidel Castro. By then, those who knew of them at JUCEPLAN referred to them as "the Comandante's reserves." The reserve of automobiles, for example, came to number 7,000 units, which were stored outside in the area of Managua, south of Havana. The reserve of trucks, which also numbered in the thousands, was kept in Alberro, in the area of Cotorro in the province of Havana. These reserves were administered by Castro separately from the planning system, which he himself did not trust; he assigned resources and equipment only to projects he initiated and directed. This system caused a great deal of discomfort among the middle-level economic planners, and it generated friction and strong disputes among Vice Minister of the Central Planning Board Luis Gutiérrez, Irma Sanchez, Emilio Quesada, Osvaldo Dorticós (in charge of the Central Planning Board), and Fidel Castro himself. By then the lines that could have separated what was public property managed by Castro and what was de facto private property had been erased. At the start of the war in Angola, in the middle of the 1970s, Castro's financial reserve was funded in part by monies from the Soviet Union and the rest of the Soviet bloc for financing Cuban military operations in that country. The same was true with respect to the war in Ethiopia. At the same time, the Cuban armed forces accumulated large quantities of canned goods. These reserves were located in Cuba and were maintained at great cost to the country because of the need to renew them frequently to keep them fresh. These reserves are currently being turned over to military personnel as compensation for their lack of access to dollars and because they cannot be maintained fresh as before given the economic crisis. The reserves were never used to supply the civilian population.
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