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The Batista-Lansky Alliance
How the mafia and a Cuban dictator built Havana's casinos
Matthew Reiss
From the Print Edition:
The Cuba Issue, May/Jun 01
(continued from page 3)
"When Castro came to power," says Wayne Smith, the former chief of the U.S. interests section in Havana, "the image of Havana was as the center of graft, corruption, vice and the Mafia. All the money in the country was siphoned off by Havana." After he took control, Castro announced that resources would be shifted to benefit those who had produced the wealth. Since that time, says Smith, "Havana has become quite run-down." Since 1959, the Castro government has concentrated its efforts on building rural schools and clinics.
For decades, the revolutionary government shunned tourism, Smith says. "To them, tourism was identified with the past, the Mafia, with Americans coming down and pissing on the statues of their heroes." Although Cuba's economic difficulties have again opened the country to foreign tourists, gambling and casinos remain illegal. Says Smith, "They're very careful not to let the Mafia back in."
Matthew Reiss is a freelance writer.
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