“It was a full-fledged political rally,” is how a descendant of a Canarian emigrant described the meeting that took place this Tuesday at the Asturian Association of Cuba, in the Prado in Havana, and which brought together members of various Spanish societies ahead of the elections municipal and regional events that will be held in Spain this Sunday.
Dozens of children and grandchildren of Spaniards gathered at the place waiting to receive details about the voting process, but they ran into something that was not the announced logistical instructions on the elections that will take place in 11 of the 17 autonomous communities from the country. “There were two representatives of the PSOE (Spanish Socialist Workers’ Party, in power) who took the floor to ask for the vote for their party,” he told 14ymedio this son of a canary who prefers anonymity.
The call for the meeting, to which this newspaper had access, was sent by WhatsApp through the group Giremos la historia, which brings together dozens of Cubans who are Spanish nationals. The text was addressed to all “the Presidents of Base Organs of the Capital” of these societies, and explained: “The Consul of the Embassy of Spain is going to give a conference on how the voting will be carried out at the Consulate General” .
“At first, when they called for the meeting, everything seemed fine, because they talked about the fact that they were going to report on the basic issues of the electoral process”
“At first, when they called for the meeting, everything seemed fine, because they talked about the fact that they were going to report on the basic issues of the electoral process,” the source added. “But, when people arrived at the Asturian Association, they found that there was no trace of the consul or anyone from the Consulate, but there were some gentlemen who introduced themselves as Javier Vila and Virgilio Cano, representatives of the PSOE.”
The first is the federal coordinator of the Latin American Area of the party, while the second, who was a deputy of the Madrid Assembly between 1983 and 1999, no longer has political positions, works as CEO of the EBM company in Cuba and resides on the island.
Sources from the Spanish Consulate in Havana confirmed this Tuesday to 14ymedio that “none of the consuls has been in central Asturias today” and they add that “the Consulate has given the electoral information through its website and Twitter and before the elections the operation was explained to the president of the CRE [Consejo de Residentes Españoles] and the president of the Federation of Spanish Associations”.
Ion Antolín, communication director of the PSOE, tells 14ymedio that it is true that members of the party were invited to the act, but he flatly rejects that any of his envoys gave any indication as to which ballot to choose. “It was a talk about the method of external voting. We were invited and we explained that process, but nobody asked for the vote,” he says.
However, in the spacious hall, before representatives of the companies of Asturias, the Canary Islands, Cantabria and the Balearic Islands, Vila y Cano’s message was clear and direct, according to audio that this newspaper had access to. “What we want is the maximum possible number of votes that can be obtained for the PSOE,” said Vila. He alluded to the fact that his party has managed to “recognize the Democratic Memory Law” and that “the grandchildren can have the option of having access to that Spanish passport”.
Although he begins his speech by saying: “We are not going to go into political issues, we are going to go into what we can help our compatriots here in Cuba,” he immediately added: “obviously” we must help “those who have the same affiliation than we”. Vila stressed: “What we want is for there to be many votes, but for them to be from the left, not from the right. If the right returns, it will abolish the law and we don’t want that.” “We have very fair days” and “a very small influx in the consulates, practically nil. That is not good for us”, and he added: “We have to try to find the means” so that they can vote.
Among the residents of the Island who participated in the meeting was Julio Santamarina López, president of the Federation of Spanish Societies of Cubawho limited himself to recounting the difficulties in voting by mail, and Juan José Cabral Mesa, current president of the grassroots body of the Playa municipality in Havana of the Leonor Pérez Cabrera Canarian Association and one of the candidates to preside.
Cabral was one of those who published the call to the meeting in the WhatsApp group, through which the consul’s presence at the meeting was announced, which was later proven to be false. In that instant messaging thread, this Cuban nationalized Spanish introduces himself as “Casa Canaria” and during the meeting with Vila y Cano he said he was speaking “on behalf of the Canarians of Cuba”, something that deeply upset several of the attendees.
Part of that anger comes from the fact that Cabral is also being criticized by numerous members of the Canary Islands Association who point to him as one of the preferred candidates for the pro-government Management Commission led by the Cuban Vice Minister of Culture Fernando Rojas and that since 2022 takes the reins of the Association and manages its propertyCasa Canaria, on Monserrate street in Old Havana.
After the meeting, the inconvenience for finding a proselytizing act instead of a meeting with the consul did not wait. “We have always advocated that the Canary Islands Association not lean towards any party, so that it is apolitical and does not work to seek votes for a specific party, but rather that each one vote for the one they prefer,” said Justo, one of the participants. , who prefers not to give his real name.
Justo fears that Rojas and his right-hand man, Dayamí Blanco Jorrín, are maneuvering so that the elections for a new president lean toward someone who can be “controlled” by the Cuban regime. “It is an intention to control the Canary House not only for managing the consignments that arrive for their maintenance and for the canaries in Cuba, but also for controlling it for political purposes”.
According to this descendant of Canarians, the Management Commission leans towards the PSOE and, especially, towards its representatives in the Canary Islands, for issues “ranging from political compromises, to the approval of funds that end up benefiting neither the Canarian community nor the Home”. The discontent over these mismanagements has grown significantly in recent months among the members of the Association.
The delays in the call for elections, the irregularities in the preparation of the electoral roll and the lack of transparency around the possible candidates for the Presidency of the organization have set off alarm bells. Some suspicions that have been incubating for some time although they accelerated after the death of the founder of the Association, Carmelo González, in 2018, and the death of Lázaro Rivero, who replaced him in office, together with the scandal of the diversion of funds uncovered in 2022.
Added to this is the recent announcement that for the reform and improvement works of Casa Canaria, a “a generous grant of 90,000 euros from the budget of the General Directorate of Emigration of the Government of the Canary Islands”says the same source, money that will be managed entirely by the management commission in the hands of the Vice Minister of Culture and that is already raising hives among members of other provinces who feel abandoned and without resources.
Although disputed, the vote of Spanish nationalized Cubans living in Cuba is negligible. Until this week, according to sources linked to the current electoral process, less than a dozen Canarians had placed their ballot in the ballot boxes located in the Havana Consulate, although the community numbers more than 63,000 people.
Other communities are not showing much enthusiasm either. The Asturians, with more than 10,000 nationalized throughout the Island, barely reached thirty votes in this process, and adding all the members of Spanish societies, the figure does not exceed one hundred placed in a ballot box and less than 250 sent by mail.
The small number of votes that leave the Island does not eliminate the shocks. “This Thursday someone left a bale with 127 votes in a Post Office,” another descendant of a canary who also appeals to anonymity, tells this newspaper. “When they called the Consulate, they said that a Cuban official had brought them and that she had only left a contact telephone number. It turned out to be Dayamí Blanco Jorrín,” he clarifies.
When the collaborator of the Cuban Vice Minister of Culture was confronted “for taking the votes in that way, which is irregular, because the voters must put their ballot directly in the ballot box or send it themselves by mail, she said that she did it because some members of the Association had put the envelopes with the tickets under the door of the Casa Canaria and she was only doing the favor of moving them.”
Another witness confirms to this newspaper that the Consulate “drafted a record on the way in which the votes came into their hands and several members of the Association have also denounced what happened directly to the authorities of the Canary Islands.” His greatest suspicion: “that these 127 votes are influenced by what happened in the Asturian Association” last Tuesday and that they all go to the same party.
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