Cushion, Steve;
(2025)
The Ministry for the Recovery of Embezzled Property: the first two years of the Cuban Revolution.
Socialist History
(66)
pp. 54-74.
Preview |
Text
The-Ministry-for-the-Recovery-of-Embezzled-Property.pdf - Accepted Version Download (314kB) | Preview |
Abstract
The Republic of Cuba in the 1950s was institutionally corrupt. Popular revulsion at this corruption brought a high level of support to the movement that overthrew the Batista dictatorship. The first act of the new Cuban Revolutionary Government in January 1959 was to set up the Ministry for the Recovery of Embezzled Property. In the first year of its operation, ‘Recuperación’ recovered four hundred million dollars. It became not only an anti-corruption police force, but also a means of exposing the eye-watering level of corruption engaged in by the Cuban ruling class, and the first stage of the State takeover of the whole economy of Cuba. Much of the money recovered was used to finance the agrarian reform programme. The process required the support of the bank workers’ union, the industrial trade unions and the newly formed workers’ militia. Such mass involvement was essential to the success of the intervention.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | The Ministry for the Recovery of Embezzled Property: the first two years of the Cuban Revolution |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| Publisher version: | https://journal.socialisthistorysociety.co.uk/?p=2... |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | Licenced under a Creative Commons Licence (CC BY-SA 4.0). |
| Keywords: | Cuba, Revolution, Corruption, State Intervention |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL SLASH > Faculty of S&HS > Institute of the Americas |
| URI: | https://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10208845 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
