Identidades in English No 1, February 2014 | Page 58

Other obstacles
The Communist Party is a group that can be manipulated to extremes by those in power. Until very recently, it failed to fulfill one of its principal laws, and
there were no repercussions: it didn’t have a Congress
every two years. Yet, its ability to keep its privileged
place as the only authorized political party in Cuba is
too attractive for a social sector used to the false notion that society has a leadership role.
The National Assembly is the nation’s weakest institution. Its representatives fulfill a function that is increasingly formal: to approve everything the power
elite puts before it for signing. They have no legitimacy whatsoever, nor any direct connection to their
voters’ problems. It is precisely because of this that
they are adaptable enough to give their stamp of legality to those of the new generation amongst the leaders
currently in power.
Large “group organizations like the CDRs, FMCs,
CTCs, ANAPs, and many, many more, have no real
weight. They are artificial structures whose function
is to control society; they were created by the concept
of power that currently rules over us. No matter what
the transition ends up being, it will very likely not
make sense to keep them or readapt them for our new
circumstances.
Considerations
Democracy and a State of Law are essential to any
attempt to heal the distortions that prolonged totalitarianism has created in our country, and begin to move
it towards stability. Neither of these civilizing instruments is going to land in Cuban society’s lap by
magic. The shrinking nucleus of conservatives holding on to power mistrusts relatively unorthodox ideas
and the ambitions of their voracious underlings, despite the fact they depend on them totally.
Unlike the governing elite, we must remember that not
even one provincial or municipal Party Secretary is
seventy or eighty years old. Neither is any mediumlevel functionary. They are the ones who make the

State, its institutional aberrations, or the limited, economically liberalizing measures their aged patrons regurgitate, work.
Despite the fact they are a majority, they have also
been distorted by the ruling system’s orders and commands. As a result, they have their own power projects. They handle all the State’s levers and influence.
The more the current group of aged leaders, with their
coarse way of thinking, weakens, the more they can
either start a power conflict among them, arrive at an
internal agreement to try to continue with their absolute rule, or exclude any ‘foreign’ force stemming
from civil society, which might initiate step towards
its participation. They would attempt to manage a sort
of modern, authoritarian model; there are many contemporary examples worldwide.
If this or any other thing that did not lead to the complete establishment of a State of Law and democracy
happened, the nation would appear to be distancing itself from anarchy and the essentials of a failed State.
Yet, that would be only an onerous delay; it would
make things much worse than what I have already described in the long run. We cannot fool ourselves and
settle for stimulating economic progress if freedoms
continue to be violated and instead of democratic institutions, we have a modernized and inheritable, authoritarian model. What would emerge would be the
earlier social, cultural and economic ills that were
never healthily, honestly and democratically discussed. They would become difficult to control, as is
the case in Mexico with its drug trafficking, or Colombia with its guerrillas.
Our island’s privileged geographic position, so close
to the world’s largest market, would be very attractive
to numerous interests. Other, external dangers could
worsen the national situation, if they took advantage
of our institutions’ lack of solidity and the general inclination towards corruption and criminality in our
State and society. Criminal groups extended throughout the continent could find their way into the country
and corrupt it with their capital and violence in power
sectors. Among these could be gangs like the Maras,
Mexican and Colombian drug trafficking, leftwing

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