Juan Juan Almeida, 20 June 2016 — Carlos Emilio is a pseudonym. He has the rank of Colonel, and his real name is Emilio Alejandro Monsanto. He’s detained in Havana, in an elegant house converted into a military prison, accused of being the possible intellectual author of the theft and sale of information from the eighth floor of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), and of having organized a series of operations to launder more than 100 million dollars in Panama, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Mexico, Spain, the Dominican Republic and the United States that implicate General Abelardo Colomé Ibarra (“Furry”), Iraida Hidalgo (Furry’s wife), General Carlos Fernández Gondín; also, General Román, Commander Ramiro Valdés, various members of the Commission of Defense and National Security, families of the deceased General, Julio Casas Regueiro, a daughter of the present President of the Council of State and Ministers of the Republic of Cuba, Raúl Castro, and other less important elements of the olive-green Cuban jet set.
But of course, as my grandmother, who was the queen of street smarts, said, “The wolf will always be the bad guy because it’s Little Red Riding Hood who tells the story.”
The information that arrives in drips and drabs from Havana about the hermetically sealed case ensures that, hidden under a tangle of joint stock companies, those who are implicated in the almost impenetrable investigative file expatriated Cuban capital through a series of operations of doubtful commercial coherence and ended up raiding the national budget.
Sources with supposed access to the case surmise that:
1. They laundered the money in financial entities, such as:
- Financiera Ricamar S.A.: Calle 18 super 99, Monte Oscuro, Panama.
- Financiera Eurolatina S.A.: Paitilla, Plaza Bal Halbour M-38, San Francisco, Panama City.
- Financiera Bescanvi Occidental S.A.: Ave. Federico Boyd, Cond. Alfaro L-48, Bella Vista, Panama City.
2. With the alleged political influence of President Daniel Ortega, they invested in the construction of Galerías Santo Domingo, located on the Boulevar de Los Mártires. Today, it’s the most exclusive commercial center in Managua; rather, in all of Nicaragua.
3. With an injection of money that was suspicious due to the inability to demonstrate the origin of their funds, they created a corporation located on the Avenida Hispanoamericana de Santiago de los Caballeros, in the Dominican Republic, which now reports accountable losses.
4. With the mediation of straw men (their names are already being leaked, because all materials burn if you apply the adequate spark), they bought properties in Barcelona, Madrid, Marbella, Murcia, Galicia, Miami, Cape Coral, Fort Myers and New York.
I’m not saying more for the protection of my informants, because we live in a society where it’s easy to judge, and because it’s not fair to use or punish a scapegoat as an excuse for the accuser’s ends. It’s that, as usual, the truly guilty, those who lost their sense of time, space and decency, continue to be free and sovereign. It wouldn’t be the first time; we saw it in the judgment of Cases 1 and 2 in 1989*, which some water down, many restate and, in reality, few understand.
Being an accomplice or a collaborator of a group in power grants certain advantages; but it’s inconvenient for life and liberty.
*Translator’s note: A reference to the execution of General Ochoa and others, after being found guilty of drug smuggling and treason.
Translated by Regina Anavy
