IDENTIDADES 1 ENGLISH IDENTIDADES 9 ENGLISH | Page 54

civil society have been devoted to
spread the basics of Deliberative
Democracy across neighborhoods in
Havana and towns and cities in the
inland.
The result is visibly significant and they
have been formally expressed, step by
step, through five international events
organized by the Cuban Integration
Platform. In addressing the third one,
held at the Florida International
University (FIU) in March 2015, El
Nuevo Herald emphasized the Cuban
experience
under
peculiar
circumstances:
"The
process
of
Deliberative Democracy satisfies the
conditions in Cuba —stated Cuesta
Morúa— since it’s possible to gather
small groups in homes and other similar
premises". He said that such meetings
with citizens from different places may
go unnoticed for the repressive forces;

thusly, the chances of success
significantly increase, along with the
number of attendees since they feel
more secure.
The unique variant of implementation in
Cuba is attested by the so-called Tables
of Constitutional Initiative (Spanish
acronym: MICs). These are spaces
where citizens seek concrete solutions
to concrete problems, but also engage in
discussions and proposals on legal and
constitutional
matters
that
are
invaluable for recovering the culture of
law and legality shattered by the
Castroite dictatorship. If the citizens do
not regain their voices to enforce these
cultural values in a dialogue opened by
the institutionalization of the social,
cultural and political pluralism, they
won’t be able to conceive the changes
demanded by the Cuban society.

Table of Constitutional Initiative in Santiago de Las Vegas, Havana

Regarding the same meeting mentioned
above, El Nuevo Herald commented
another initiative promoted by the
Project New Country. Its activists
provide a ballot to each participant in
the MICs asking them to indicate five

separate proposals on what they want
for Cuba. There are already thousands
of
ballots
accumulated,
which
practically operate as a national survey.
That meeting marked the milestone
from which the model of Deliberative

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