Cuba’s new constitution is the same as the old one — undemocratic
by Marion Smith
February 26, 2019
(USA TODAY) Maybe you heard: Communist Cuba is on the road to freedom.
That’s what Cuba’s rulers want you to think after the Cuban people overwhelmingly approved a new constitution on Sunday. But the opposite is true. Cuba’s rulers have only cemented their control, and the Cuban people are no closer to freedom today.
Just look at the process that created this new constitution, which was anything but democratic. It began last summer when the National Assembly established a commission to draft the text. The Assembly claims to represent the Cuban people, but its most recent election fielded a party-approved candidate in each of its 612 races. The electorate could only vote yes or no. Every Communist candidate won.
As for the commission, it consisted of 33 hardline Communist loyalists, chaired by none other than First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba Raul Castro. Its only goal was to safeguard the tyrannical one-party state, which it accomplished by drafting a charter that makes socialism in Cuba “irrevocable.”
Ultimately, the new constitution is little more than a public-relations stunt. Like the Soviet constitution of old, it has freedom-friendly language on paper that disappears in reality.
For example, the document ostensibly recognizes private property for the first time. This is a meaningless clause considering the constitution also reiterates the “irrevocable” role of central planning and state control over production and land use. Nor can there be any meaningful protection of private property in a country that refuses to recognize the concept of individual rights.
Cuba’s fake rights
Similarly, the text appears to restore the presumption of innocence in Cuban courts and the right to legal representation. This, too, is a dead letter. All lawyers and judges serve at the pleasure of the Communist Party and follow its dictates. The regime also routinely ignores those due process obligations that already exist in Cuban law, including the right to petition the authorities with grievances, and has arrested and imprisoned thousands of political prisoners without formal charges in recent years.
Finally, the constitution seems to place constraints on Cuba’s president, restricting the position to two consecutive terms and creating a new and co-equal office of prime minister. But the true ruler of the country — as in all Marxist systems from China to North Korea — is the party’s first secretary. In Cuba, it’s Raul Castro.
There are still no checks and balances on this all-powerful position; the Castro family continues to control every facet of Cuban life. These and other so-called reforms are little more than a colorful new paint job on the same rusty old Communist architecture. The structure underneath is still a totalitarian state that bans political parties, imprisons and harasses dissenters, and denies the Cuban people’s most basic human rights.
Nothing will change
Tellingly, the constitution omitted any reference to the freedom of conscience. The regime actively tried to prevent Christians from speaking out or even participating in the referendum.
Then again, the referendum itself was a ploy by Havana to legitimize its rule and disarm foreign critics. It left pro-freedom Cubans in a lose-lose situation. They could either vote no in an election with a pre-ordained outcome or refuse to participate altogether, giving the regime a lopsided victory either way. The U.S. media is lauding the 9% who voted no — a historic high — but that number is highly suspect for a dictatorship that craved a democratic veneer. Havana could very well have pulled it out of a hat.
Meanwhile, for the Cuban people, nothing will change.
The regime will laud this new step in the revolution’s struggle, even as its subjects struggle to survive in a nation defined by poverty. Last week, I spoke with Rosa María Payá, a Cuban activist whose father Oswaldo Payá founded a movement opposed to the Communist Party. The regime assassinated him in 2012, and now his daughter tells me the new constitution only “guarantees the perpetuation of the dictatorship.”
Rosa María believes the Cuban people deserve a real referendum, which she advocates through an initiative known as Cuba Decide. Tens of thousands of her fellow citizens have joined her to call on Havana to hold a yes-or-no vote — not on a Communist constitution, but on the Communist Party itself.
The regime will never let such a vote happen because it fears nothing more than the Cuban people. Instead, it staged a rigged referendum to fool the world and fortify its rule. The new constitution is a charter of renewed tyranny, not liberty, and so long as the Communist Party reigns in Havana, Cuba will never be free.
http://humbertomondejargonzalez.blogspot.com/2019/02/540-rosa-maria-paya-eliecer-avila-y.html
540-Rosa Maria Paya, Eliecer Ávila y Jose Daniel Ferrer son neo castristas o reformadores del castrismo.
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El censo electoral registra 9 298 277 ciudadanos con derecho a voto, de una población de 11 200 000 habitantes que son reconocidos por el castrismo como cubanos.
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Los resultados del escrutinio arrojaron los siguientes datos:
1-Ejercieron el voto: 7 848 343 (84,4%)
2-Dejaron en blanco la boleta: 198 674 (2.1%)
3-Anularon la boleta: 127 100 (1.3%)
4-Marcaron No en la boleta: 706 400 (7.6%)
5-Marcaron Sí en la boleta: 6 816 169 (73.30%)
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El saldo político mas importante fue el rechaso inesperado que tuvo la Mega Operación Democracia Castrista (Si+No); cuando se suma los que no fueron a votar, los votos en blanco y lo votos anulados. Estos dos últimos la mayoría deben ser de miembros del PCC, la FAR, UJC, CTC, ANAC, FEU, FEEM,…
1-No fueron a Votar: 1 440 934 (15.5%)
2-Dejaron en blanco la boleta: 198 674 (2.1%)
3-Anularon la boleta: 127 100 (1.3%)
Suma total de rechazo a la “constitución” de Fidel mas a la “constitucion” de Raul (al Sí+No): 1 766 708 (19%)
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Como colofón agregar que las dos “constituciones” según se infiere de su espíritu y su letra, no son mas una especie de reglamento disciplinario o leyes complementarias del PCC o sus estatutos, pero para ser cumplidas en la práctica solo por el pueblo.
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Conclusión:
En dictaduras los patriotas no votan si no hay garantías internacionales y si además ha participado bajo un debido proceso en lo que se va ha votar.
http://humbertomondejargonzalez.blogspot.com/2019/02/540-rosa-maria-paya-eliecer-avila-y.html
540-Rosa Maria Paya, Eliecer Ávila and Jose Daniel Ferrer are neo-Castroists or reformers of Castroism.
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The electoral census registers 9,288,277 citizens with the right to vote, out of a population of 11,200,000 inhabitants who are recognized by Castro as Cubans.
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The results of the scrutiny yielded the following data:
1-Exercised the vote: 7 848 343 (84.4%)
2-Left the ballot blank: 198 674 (2.1%)
3-Canceled the ballot: 127 100 (1.3%)
4-Marked No on the ballot: 706 400 (7.6%)
5-Marked Yes on the ballot: 6 816 169 (73.30%)
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The most important political balance was the unexpected rejection of the Mega Operación Democracia Castrista (Yes + No); when those who did not vote were added, the votes blank and the votes annulled. These last two must be members of the PCC, the FAR, UJC, CTC, ANAC, FEU, FEEM, …
1-They did not go to Vote: 1 440 934 (15.5%)
2-Left the ballot blank: 198 674 (2.1%)
3-Canceled the ballot: 127 100 (1.3%)
Total sum of rejection of the “constitution” of Fidel plus the “constitution” of Raul (to Yes + No): 1 766 708 (19%)
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To conclude, the two “constitutions” as inferred from their spirit and letter, are no longer a kind of disciplinary regulation or complementary laws of the PCC or its statutes, but to be fulfilled in practice only by the people.
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Conclusion:
In dictatorships patriots do not vote if there are no international guarantees and if they have also participated under a due process in which they will vote.
¿Por qué tan abiertamente sangrientos los dictadores cubanos este mes?
Porque perdieron brasil, ecuador, argentina y chile; no pudieron ganar colombia y se les está muriendo la gallina de los huevos de oro, venezuela: así q esperen mucha más sangre el mes que viene
MUCHA MUCHA
Seria interesante ver que pasaria despues de 2021 cuando Raul va a dejar la presidencia del partido. El y Ramiro Valdez tambien algun dia tendran que morirse, ya van por los 90 anyos.
Pero la verdad si los cubanos no se rebelan, el regimen seguirà hasta sin ellos.
En los ultimos anyos muchas tajadas del poder han pasado desde el comitè del partido al ejercito. Podemos decir que en practica hoy Cuba es una dictadura militar con un capitalismo de estado.
Alejandro Castro Espin y el General Cintra Frias podran seguir controlando el pais despues de la partida de Raul y Ramiro.
Es inutil esperar que las dictaduras caigan solitas, no se caen, toca al pueblo meterle un espaldarazo.
Creo que la disidencia perdio un timing perfect..porque la opinion international sobre Venezuela y el papel de Cuba alla era ideal PARA EL YO NO VOTO….Le tiraron un cabo al regimen al ir a votar..aunque sea por el no
A dónde va un pueblo de carneros?
Un pueblo q permite le den la basura de educación y libertades q recibe?
La basura de oportunidades y derechos?
Q se solaza en la mediocridad, el orgullo fatuo, la alegría pueril, la burla rápida y holgada
Lo único holgado, además del cráneo donde resuena el cerebro como maraca de un solo grano