Reestablishing an independent and professional judicial system is, according to the plan, essential to guarantee rights and limit state power.
MADRID, Spain.- At the heart of the National Salvation Plan is a principle that runs through the entire proposal: the need to rebuild the institutional foundations of the Republic. After addressing the call to a national strikethe creation of a transitional government and the economic liberationthe document dedicates a fundamental section to the reconstruction of the Judicial Branch, conceived as the pillar that guarantees freedom and limits the power of the State.
The plan is based on a clear diagnosis: justice in Cuba has been instrumentalized as a repressive arm of political power, hierarchically subordinated to the Council of State and the Council of Ministers. This subordination—established in the constitutional architecture of the regime—has prevented the judicial system from functioning as an institutional counterweight. For this reason, the document proposes returning to a republican model inspired by the 1940 Constitution, where judicial independence was a central principle.
Restore the republican judicial structure
The text recommends “regulating the Judicial Power in the same way as in the 1940 Constitution, at the head of which was the Supreme Court of Justice, completed by provincial and municipal hearings.” This historical reference is not merely symbolic: it seeks to reinstate a hierarchical and autonomous judicial model, in which the courts respond to the law and not to the political will of a single party.
Another central point is the elimination of the jurisdictions created by the socialist system, such as military, revolutionary and popular grassroots courts. The permanence of these structures – the plan explains – responds to a logic of political control rather than an authentic exercise of justice. Instead, it is proposed to reactivate the Court of Constitutional and Social Guarantees, which during the Republic functioned as a guarantor of fundamental rights.
A judicial branch independent of the Executive
The document clearly establishes that “the courts of justice will NOT be hierarchically subordinate to the Council of State or Ministers.” This is a direct break with the current logic of the regime, where the judiciary is an appendix of the executive structure. The proposal contemplates that the Supreme Court be elected with broad political support and special majorities in Parliament, and that its members are not subject to the same periods as the Executive and Legislative. This design seeks to ensure stability, independence and legitimacy in the functioning of justice.
In addition, it is proposed to “agree on a mechanism for electing judges for all levels of the judiciary,” with transparent and depoliticized criteria. In a transition scenario, this mechanism will be key to recovering citizen confidence in justice and preventing the judiciary from becoming a partisan instrument again.
Rebuild the rule of law from day one
Orlando Gutiérrez-Boronat, coordinator of the Assembly of the Cuban Resistance (ARC), emphasizes that “a free society is fundamentally a society based on law.” In his opinion, the rule of law must be one of the pillars of national reconstruction: “More important than electoral power is legal power, the rule of law.”
The opponent explains that under the current regime “the judicial power appears subordinate, subject to the legislative power and the legislative power is subject to the executive power.” Faced with this, he maintains that reconstruction must start from “limiting the power of the State to protect the freedom and rights of the individual.” The objective is to restore the balance between the three powers and guarantee that the judicial branch acts “on equal terms with the legislative branch and the executive branch.”
To this end, Gutiérrez-Boronat insists that the reconstruction of justice cannot be postponed: “The important thing is to begin the reconstruction of the rule of law immediately. That has not worked in any transition from dictatorship to democracy in communist countries.”
Judges and lawyers in a democratic Cuba
The proposal also contemplates specific measures on the practice of law. The plan establishes that in a democratic Cuba “the private, autonomous or self-employed practice of law” will be recognized, a practice eliminated during the communist regime. In addition, it proposes restoring the Bar Associations, which will ensure professional ethics and the effectiveness of service before the courts.
The creation of a professional legal body is also planned, with clear ethical standards and sanctions to guarantee the independence and responsibility of lawyers before courts and clients. In this context, the collective law firms under the control of the Ministry of Justice would be abolished, replaced by a free and regulated practice from the profession.
Regarding the prison system, the plan proposes to review it “adjusting it to the universal principles of human rights”, in a radical turn with respect to the punitive logic of the current Cuban prison system.
Gutiérrez-Boronat points out that the Cuban legal tradition is an asset for this process: “Cuba has a legal body, a very good body of law in its culture, in its civilization, it has a strong legal tradition until the barbarism and savagery of the authoritarian State arrived and we can resort to that as a norm, as a way of reference, as a background and legal precedent for the reconstruction of the Rule of Law.”
Refound justice to refound the Republic
The proposal of the National Salvation Plan for the judiciary is not only technical or legal: it is, above all, political and foundational. It aspires to return justice to its historical role as guarantor of rights and balance of powers in a democratic republic.
Reactivating the Supreme Court and the Court of Constitutional Guarantees, eliminating the regime’s judicial structures, electing judges independently and reestablishing the free legal profession are essential steps to break with decades of judicial subordination to political power.
If in the previous three pillars the plan proposed citizen mobilization, political transition and economic liberation, this fourth pillar seeks to guarantee that all of this occurs under a solid rule of law. The reconstruction of justice, as Gutiérrez-Boronat warns, will not be a later stage: it must begin from the first day of the transition.
