Cuban VP Marino Murillo Reappears
HAVANA TIMES — After days of rumors about the possible defection of Cuban Vice President and economic reforms chief, Marino Murillo Jorge, the official was reported present during a session this week of the Council of Ministers in the Cuban capital.
According to Granma daily, the head of the Permanent Commission for Implementation and Development filed his report on the compliance with the reform guidelines of the Communist Party.
Murillo updated some figures, such as those relating to loans granted to individuals, which to date total 218,400 persons borrowing more than a 1.773 billion regular Cuban pesos (70.9 million USD), and whose main objective has been to repair and build housing.
He added that more than 440 thousand persons had registered for self-employment, and it is estimated that the figure will continue to increase, while 270 non-agricultural cooperatives have been approved and another 228 are in the process of approval.
One of Marino’s daughters, Glenda Murillo Diaz, took advantage of a conference in Mexico in August 2012, in order to travel to the United States border and request asylum under the Cuban Adjusment Act.
I am surprised this post did not mention why the rumors of his defection began to swirl in the first place. Murillo was busted having spent more than 30,000 cuc on a luxury “vacation” in eastern Cuba. This is more than the average Cuban will earn in two lifetimes. It was after this story came to light that he was suddenly out of touch for a while. So naturally, Cubans began to speculate on his defection.