Manzanillo (Granma)/In Manzanillo there is no talk of anything else. The municipality of the Province of Granma has been shaken by the arrest of several local government officials for their involvement in the theft of fuel destined for state services and companies. Among those arrested is the mayor Osvaldo Antonio Incionio Piñeir Rossío Naranjo Figueredo.
The arrest of Incionio Piñeiro occurred a few days ago, as confirmed to 14ymedio A close source detailing the extreme discretion with which the investigation is handled: “Everything is being done behind closed doors in the offices of the Municipal Communist and Government Party.” None of these agencies have disseminated information, although “in the streets of Manzanillo there is no talk of anything else.”
“That is there that burns,” explains Aurelio, a street vendor, while pointing out the headquarters of the municipal government. “They started to lock up the piquero, who was selling the fuel on the left. He sold the same to motorists, booters, who did not throw tickets. .
In recent days the chaanilleros had noticed an increase in the presence of police in the streets and associated surveillance to some inspection of private merchants or carriers. However, it has already been leaked that the deployment is related to a case for corruption, embezzlement and influence peddling in the dome of the power of the city.
Incionio Piñeiro was also the right hand of Naranjo Figueredo, hence the residents speculate with the prompt fall of the president of the local government. “The investigations for hoarding, diversion and illegal sale of fuels that should be assigned to companies or other social commissions still continue,” clarifies the source close to the detained mayor, who considers that “centralism, that of concentrating in a few the decision of What to do with oil and gasoline “is the main cause of the current corruption plot.
“Everything is being done behind closed doors in the offices of the Municipal Communist and Government Party”
With the power to decide which entities and services could receive fuel and how much, local officials used their authority to fill their pockets. “It was diminishing the access of certain companies to these resources, especially those linked to services to the population, while private businesses, private individuals and certain local companies received the fuel expressly.”
“Everyone knew what was happening. While common people did not have how to transport, it was seen that there were some who did not miss gasoline,” an internet user cried on a local Facebook group where the mayor’s arrest was The center of comments. “The local government is rotten from top to bottom and that takes years. Every time they replace one and bring another, it does not spend a month for that new one to also be wetting with the resources that are for the people.”
In the case of the current police investigation, the trigger seems to have been the case of a child sick of cancer who needed to be transferred to a consultation in Havana, the child’s father asked for help to move to the capital but only received long from the authorities and decided to send a letter to the State Council denouncing the lack of fuel to move patients from Manzanillo.
“There are going to shoot heads and not those of anyone,” predicts the tanned seller who from his privileged position in front of the headquarters of the Manzanillero government has been aware of what happens. “You have to have a stone heart not to help a father in that situation. There is no longer oil or for ambulances, or for the funeral car even. It is more, the buses almost or look, here people are move in cars or Catibanas horses. Sometimes the hospital route is not even given a couple of trips, “says the merchant.
After the father’s complaint, the mayor was under the magnifying glass of the researchers. A profile on Facebook, which seems to belong to the Department of Technical Research (DTI), had published at the beginning of this month a call to the chamilarers to collaborate with complaints about Incionio Piñeiro: “We know that its mayor is embezzling fuel, they do not have support from the Government, the issue of water is lousy, we are going to solve many problems, write the private with everything they know. ”
/ 14ymedio
Corruption also affects the strategic fuel reserve with which the island’s popular advice counts. It is an allocation for sensitive, urgent or unexpected cases. However, gasoline granted for these purposes ended up being sold month after month to carriers and individuals. “It had become a lucrative business from which some workers from the internal units of the CAM benefited,” adds another source close to the council asks for anonymity.
“Next, the ostensible changes in their living standards were noticed. Some not only charged in money, but also in prebendas to favor members and relatives,” he adds. The victims of these bad management were citizens and state companies. The latter came to see their productive activities very damaged and services to the population due to the lack of fuel. “It is impossible for the mayor and the charges under his command to ignore what was happening”
At the end of January, Incencio Piñeiro participated in a meeting with directors of local companies where, among the issues discussed, the confrontation of crime, corruption and illegalities were addressed. Attendees discussed the need to “avoid thefts in these units and work centers” and in the meeting “new indications on the control and use of energy controls for contingency cases” were oriented, especially fuel.
“After that appearance he saw a couple of times and no longer came out,” says a chaanillera in the Facebook group where the news of the mayor’s arrest gave wings to the complaints. “That was suggested and must be talking even for the elbows, but that does not change anything, he leaves and put another who is going to be rich, reversing gasoline.”
