Word: ochoa
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Through two days of testimony, Major General Arnaldo Ochoa Sanchez sat with his head bowed, absently fingering his uniform, his downcast eyes glazed with an expression that suggested dejection or resignation. He neither smiled when the tribunal of 47 generals and admirals praised his past acts of military valor in places as far-flung as Angola and Ethiopia nor frowned when it branded him a traitor and called for his execution. When Ochoa finally rose to speak, he denied none of the charges: consorting with international drug dealers, illicitly trafficking in everything from cocaine and diamonds to ivory and sugar...
...corruption case unfolded with suspicious speed. Ochoa and six other military and Interior Ministry officials were arrested in early June. Ten days later, the Communist Party daily Granma gave a stunningly detailed account, , accusing the seven men of pocketing $3.4 million for helping Colombia's infamous Medellin cartel transport six tons of cocaine to Florida. By the time Ochoa's hearing was convened two weeks later with all the haste and splash of the ongoing scapegoat trials in China, it was a foregone conclusion that this popular and much decorated military officer would be found guilty. Ochoa's court-martial...
Those who believe that Ochoa's public humiliation was part of a politically inspired housecleaning were handed some potent ammunition last week: the firing of Cuba's Interior Minister, General Jose Abrantes, for the "great deficiency" of failing to uncover Ochoa's drug operation. It is possible that there are more firings to come. But an editorial signed by Castro stated that Abrantes was taking an inevitable rap for the corruption that transpired on his watch. In recent months the Interior Ministry has fallen into disfavor for not halting a sharp rise in crime and official corruption...
...Castro moved on Ochoa to send a message to the military, he could not have picked a better target. Enormously popular among the troops, Ochoa is a veteran of Castro's revolution who has commanded troops in Ethiopia, Angola and Nicaragua. In 1984 he received the Hero of the Cuban Republic medal, the military's highest honor. Last week Ochoa was removed as a full member of the Communist Party Central Committee and an elected delegate to the National Assembly. The move against Ochoa may have been personal as well as symbolic. His popularity may have threatened Defense Minister Raul...
...that the Ruiz operation had secured cooperation from Cuban officers to use military runways as transit points. Of Cuba's compensation, Ruben said, "The money went into Fidel's drawer" -- a charge that has not been substantiated. Lehtinen says that the names of some of those arrested in the Ochoa scandal turned up during the Ruiz investigation...