The governor of the Cuban central province of Cienfuegos “offered his resignation” after acknowledging “committing errors in his job,” a two-graph note in a local newspaper announced last week, the latest high-profile case in a broad government-led anti-corruption campaign that seems to be targeting public officials who illegally profited from close links with the islands fledgling private businesses.

The private sector is also a target of campaign, as the government tries to enforce tax rules for small and medium enterprises, known by the abbreviation mipymes in Spanish. Sources with knowledge of the situation have told the Miami Herald that dozens, if not more, of private business owners have been prevented from traveling abroad because they owe taxes.

Because the private businesses need the permission of local governments to operate, the system seems ripe for abuse, a Cuban entrepreneur who asked not to be identified said.

The entrepreneur said that a local official in Havana who was in charge of garbage collection in the central neighborhood of El Vedado had recently been arrested. He had pressured private businesses to sign contracts with the state for the collection of garbage generated by their businesses. But the service was not actually provided. Instead, the official pocketed the money from the contracts as well as from the sale of fuel allocated by the government for garbage collection.

A former official for the municipal government of Plaza de la Revolución in Havana who favored a local business — and then left his government job to work at that same private company — was also arrested, the entrepreneur said. The entrepreneur said there are ongoing audits of private enterprises and that some business owners have been arrested too.

Another source with knowledge of the situation said that the National Office of Tax Administration issued a blanket travel restriction for private business owners unless they obtain a letter attesting they do not owe taxes.

The uncertainty surrounding the latest campaign and the ambivalent position of the government regarding the private sector, which it has tolerated but also blamed for problems like inflation, is already making some business owners hold off on investment and expansion plans, the entrepreneur said. Another Cuban entrepreneur told the Herald that the climate of uncertainty is causing anguish among business owners on the island.

Most of the anti-corruption campaign has been happening outside of public view, except for the rare instances when a high-raking official, like the governor of Cienfuegos, had to be replaced.

A short note in the newspaper 5 de Septiembre said the governor, Alexandre Corona Quintero, had resigned after “recognizing errors committed in the exercise of his responsibility,” and that Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel had accepted the resignation.

The Communist Party had removed the party first secretary for Cienfuegos in December. The reshuffling within the party is also notable, with several first secretaries being substituted in recent months.

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