Prevent, Monitor, Protect in the Face of Current Challenges

In the context of the Fifth National Exercise for the Prevention and Confrontation of Crime, Corruption, Drugs, Illegalities, and Social Indiscipline, actions are being intensified in the province of Matanzas against those acts and behaviors that attack the country’s priorities and demand more protection, vigilance, and prevention.

As highlighted by the First Secretary of the Party, Mario Sabines Lorenzo, this exercise takes place amid the intensified blockade, increased sanctions, psychological warfare, and threats of U.S. military action against Cuba.

The Exercise in the territory pays attention to internal order in the face of resource scarcity caused by criminal activity, particularly against the economy, a reason that demands responsibility from institutions and political and administrative cadres.

In light of repeated public opinions, complaints, and the occurrence of crimes against the National Electroenergetic System that impact the lives of the people and the country’s economy, the country has issued Opinion 475 of the People’s Supreme Court, which classifies these acts as sabotage against state security.

The defense of citizen security amid electrical service disruptions is a social responsibility, which is why the Party and the Government pay special attention to it, together with the Ministry of the Interior, the Revolutionary Armed Forces, mass and social organizations, institutions, and agencies.

In actions confronting acts that harm the normal development of family life, social welfare, and the availability of the country’s resources, greater protection and security are demanded for the National Electroenergetic System, fuels, and the food production and marketing program.

Also among the Exercise’s priorities in the province are the prevention and confrontation of drugs, corruption acts, and abusive and speculative prices.

Particularly relevant is the resolute confrontation of vandalism and social indiscipline that cause material damage, linked in their execution to violent acts against the life and integrity of people.

As the First Secretary of the Party’s Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, stated during the previous Exercise, these days strengthen and guarantee citizen tranquility, respect for internal order, and the country’s stability.

The battle for order, discipline, and tranquility has as its premise the unity of revolutionary forces led by the Party in order to achieve greater popular participation and control in this Exercise.

During an exchange this Tuesday with the territory’s press media, Lieutenant Colonel Roberto Domínguez Rodríguez, chief of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of the Interior, noted that in the first quarter of the year, incidents against transformers to steal dielectric oil increased.

These thefts are concentrated notably in the municipalities of Jovellanos, Pedro Betancourt, Perico, Martí, Los Arabos, Calimete, and Jagüey Grande.

Meanwhile, he assured that the causes and conditions are linked to security and protection, poor lighting, and the remoteness of these sites, which have affected the population of communities such as México, René Fraga, and San José de Marcos.

Under such conditions, work is being carried out with 40 involved individuals and ten criminal chains associated with acts against the electrical grid, with a direct impact on agricultural production, primarily rice, and on the well-being of the population in those rural communities.

The chief of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of the Interior in the province insisted on the protection of substations where they steal transformer oil, causing blackouts and the need to replace resources that the country does not have.

In the second quarter of the year, surveillance and confrontation have managed to contain these crimes with a decrease, and investigative work is moving quickly on the involved citizens, who are in pretrial detention.

Regarding the progress of the investigative process, the Chief Prosecutor of the Criminal Proceedings Department of the Matanzas Provincial Prosecutor’s Office, Iliac Castellanos Chávez, noted that several cases are in the preparatory phase.

Castellanos Chávez assured that Opinion 475 sets sanctions for sabotage against the National Electroenergetic System between seven and 30 years of imprisonment, and even the death penalty for those crimes against state security.

He also emphasized the criminal and administrative measures to be applied in these cases for the crime of failing to preserve property under custody, while noting that receivers can be sanctioned and have the means of transport used in those thefts confiscated.

The information provided by both specialists points to the need to raise revolutionary vigilance, security and protection, and the confrontation of all expressions that weaken society in a complex economic context and threat of aggression.