July 7th., 1997

False debates over Cuban Communist Party document

CIENFUEGOS, July 3. Disinterest by the citizenry, lack of expectations, and fear of reprisals characterize the debates taking place on the island regarding the document "The Party of Unity, Democracy and Human Rights that We Defend." The latter contains a platform to be discussed at the V Congress of the Cuban Communist Party which will held from October 8th to the 10th in the capital.

The meetings, carried out through the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution (CDR) and State institutions and enterprises, represent nothing but a monolithic exposition and obstruct any attempt at a pluralistic debate or criticism of the government's performance.

According to independent political analysts, the weight of the Marxist-Leninist dogmas, enriched by Neo-Stalinists theories, curtail the citizenry's will to offer critical opinions on the political stagnation and the economic crisis of the country.

"These debates are a great farce," says Arturo Medina, a young writer expelled from the Central University of Las Villas in 1988. "They are intended to re-indoctrinate the masses and take our pulse regarding the degree of disapproval which the government faces at different official levels."

Beyond the low levels of enthusiasm and the lack of critical analysis, the city-block assemblies have been characterized by unanimous approvals and severe electrical blackouts—a delirious symbiosis of totalitarianism and Franciscan hardships.

Workers and members of the CDRs interviewed by the Independent Press Bureau of Cuba said that they abstained from making any critique against the document because doing so would result in their being "blackballed" by neighborhood watch groups and the political police.

"They would call me a traitor to the revolution, and I would loose my job," stated Rodolfo, a thermoelectrical specialist. "Many of us are afraid of defying the government, because we don't even enjoy legal protection."

For Humberto Gonzalez Reyes—a professor expelled in 1986 by the Cuban Ministry of Secondary Education for corresponding with his exile parents in the U.S.—the document has no social value because it proposes no alternative to the [country's] failed ideology.

Toward that end, an internal dissidence task group, headed by economists Martha Beatriz Roque and Vladimiro Roque, presented on June 27th the document "The Homeland Belongs to Us All" which proposes pragmatic solutions, an historical reinterpretation, and recommendations.

According to the dissidents, the philosophy of the debates in to maintain a totalitarian rule and to deny Cuban citizens civil, political and economic freedoms.

Members of the CDR which have not been able to express their opinion in the Party meetings feel that Cuba needs protection for individual rights, the establishment of a constitutional state, and deep reforms in the political and economic realms, beyond the "stringency of the Revolution."

Observers believe that the premisses that gave rise to the document, classified by the opposition as Neo-Stalinist in character, derive from the moral deterioration and the absence of ethical values among numerous members of the Cuban Communist Party. The latter have been involved in embezzlements, thefts, frauds, corruption, double standards of conduct, and abuses of power that affect all levels of the party, from root-level organizations to the Communist leadership.

Translated for CubaNet by Jose J. Valdes