Havana Cuba. — The headline of a journalistic work posted on 14ymedio gives us ambitious and surprising information: “The Cuban opposition will have candidates in the November municipal elections.” The downspout specifies: “In your program, D Front asks to stop the construction of hotels and close the stores in MLC to prioritize food.”
The text affirms that these postulates are raised by “a group of citizens backed by the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC) who intend to present themselves as candidates.” According to assurances, the name of these “remains hidden, because in previous electoral processes the Government has stigmatized and finally frustrated the candidacy of opponents.”
The text of the information specifies everything related to the aforementioned “program”. It does so in the following five points: 1) allocate resources to “food, health, housing” and help to vulnerable people, and not to the construction of hotels; 2) eliminate stores in MLC (freely convertible currency); 3) release political prisoners; 4) cease the calls “to hatred and combat”; and 5) respect “the voluntary solidarity economy networks that are being created autonomously and permanently.”
I believe that all of the above merits that we return to the text of the legal body that regulates the matter in Cuba today. Contrary to what might be supposed, not even the essential aspects of the monstrous electoral system established today in Cuba appear regulated in the brand-new Constitution of the Republic. The code that regulates this system to elude and violate the will of the people is the Election Law (LE), July 13, 2019.
The process to choose the delegates to the municipal assemblies is characterized by the existence of several candidates, nominated in electoral assemblies. In them the different proposals are formulated; although sometimes it is only one, which is accepted with relief by all those present who think in their hearts: “I’m glad I got rid of this package!”.
From time to time a clueless or “useful idiot” appears from a truly democratic country who is full of praise for that system, where the nominations are made “not by political parties, but by simple citizens.” To those deceived, we should tell them the obvious: the differences between a free country (like their own) and a police-state (like Cuba) are enormous.
Not only the so-called “factors” participate in the meetings of voters of our country; that is, representatives of the various public instruments used by the regime to maintain control over its subjects. I am referring to the militants of the only legal party, the president of the CDR (Committees for the Defense of the Revolution), the leader of the FMC bloc (Federation of Cuban Women) and other unconditional.
They are joined by a couple of young men in guayaberas who are perfectly unknown in the neighborhood. They stand somewhere clearly visible, with their eyes covered by calobars (in the middle of the night!) and facing the public, whom they scrutinize with the face of bad friends. As everyone understands, these are the inevitable and ubiquitous agents of the political police of the totalitarian-minded regime.
All this to intimidate a skinny audience. Those who are frontally opposed to the communist regime do not usually form part of this; it is not usual for them to take part in official stagings. Nor is it usual for several members of the same family to participate. In recent years, it has become a general practice for only one member to attend, who, yes, delivers not only his own citation ticket, but those of all his relatives. In this way they pray as assistants, even if they are at home watching the soap opera of the day.
It is in this rarefied environment that the different nominations are formulated (and discussed). If —as is usual— he proposes to a neighbor’s son, the matter does not present major difficulties. If, on the other hand, one of those proposed is a person known for his public position against the regime, the virulent objections of the communist clique will not be long in coming.
Once it has become clear that whoever votes for the latter will be a servant of the “imperialist enemy”, an accomplice of the “salaried agents” that they have on our soil, the vote will take place. With a show of hands, in full view of everyone, especially “the factors” and the two excited youngsters.
Under these circumstances, it seems highly unlikely that a known opponent would win the nomination. The only real possibility that I see, in that sense, is that it be proposed to citizens who “are not indicated” in that aspect. But then why should the embarrassed opponents who attend the candidate nomination assembly vote for him?
If, on the other hand, a nominee’s crypto-opposition status is disclosed, then that quality will most likely become known to “the factors” and the “insurance” ones. And we would return to the same scenario of challenges, disqualifications and virulent attacks that I already referred to earlier.
Of course, other objections can be made to the claims of electing opposition councilors: one is that electoral campaigns are prohibited in our beautiful Cubita. It is assumed that, as “the only elements to be taken into account by the voters when casting their vote”, they take into account “the capacity, values, merits and prestige of the candidates” (Art. 85-e of the LE ).
Furthermore, even if they were elected, there would be very little they could do for their voters. In short: I don’t think that the opponents of the regime who are preparing to compete with it in the electoral field have great possibilities. But I wish you success in your difficult endeavor.
OPINION ARTICLE
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