Let The Government Of Cuba Open Itself To Its People

Let The Government Of Cuba Open Itself To Its People / 14ymedio, Pedro
Campos
Posted on August 4, 2015

14ymedio, Pedro Campos, Havana, 31 July 2015 – Pope Francis is coming to
Cuba this September and the Cuban people will give him an affectionate
welcome, as already happened with the last two visits of his
predecessors. Although this time religion here is diverse, there are
more than a few atheists, and Catholics and non-Catholics will be
present at his activities.

This will be an occasion to greet a Latin American pope who has tried
several reforms in the Catholic Church for the poor and the
dispossessed, who has called exploitation by its name, and who, in Latin
American lands, said that "the rules and the laws, as well as the
projects of civil community, have to seek inclusion, open spaces for
dialog, for encounter, and thus leave behind the painful memories of any
kind of repression, excessive control and loss of freedom."

Today, as Pope John Pal II wanted, the world is opening itself to Cuba
and Cuba is opening itself to the world, and the Latin American pope has
played a very important role in this, brokering agreements between the
governments of Cuba and the United States, beginning a process of dialog
that has already permitted the reopening of embassies and the
reestablishment of diplomatic relations.

And this process has been possible because of the need of the Cuban
government to access international sources of financing, and the need
of the United States to rebuild its relations with Latin America,
affected precisely by the policy of isolating Cuba.

However, what we Cubans need most, we citizens, those below, those of us
who could receive no benefit from these governmental rapprochements, is
that the government of this country open itself to its people. Pope
Francis might also contribute to this, although the force that he
commands is more moral and human than economic.

In this regard, the Cuban Civil Society Open Forum wrote a letter to His
Holiness, delivered personally to the Nunciature in Havana, in which
they solicited his good offices to mediate between the Government and
Cuban civil society and facilitate a dialog, as it did between the Cuban
authorities and those of the United States.

Cuban society urgently needs this national dialog which different
political and social forces have called for in recent years, as there is
a difficult internal situation that, unfortunately, could be complicated
by the resistance of the Government to recognize different thinking and
its insistence on repressing its manifestations.

Today, officialdom continues making speeches and acting like a citadel
under siege – "all dissent is treason" – while it is evident that the
government politicians themselves are those who are preventing the
democratization of society, the advance of the productive forces, and
the development of the relations of free production, of a character of
self-management, that characterizes the new post-capitalist society,
concomitant with the social doctrine of the Church.

Cuba is living in a transcendental moment from the coincidence of
important factors: the natural decline in the figures who have ruled the
country for more than half a century; the failure of the statist wage
model; the centralized form of political management; and the policy
change toward Cuba of the Obama administration. From the combination of
these factors, Cuba could emerge strengthened as a nation, or it could
lead to the consolidation of authoritarianism.

Much depends on the people's ability to achieve self-government and
self-reliance, so it is of prime importance that the current Government,
now open only to the proposals of the Communist Party, open itself to
all ways of political thinking and of economic and social action.

If, as a consequence of the combination of these factors the
monopolistic State capitalism emerges stronger, in alliance with foreign
capital, the big winner will be the current militaristic
authoritarianism, but at the eventual cost of a virtual economic and
geopolitical annexation by the great neighbor to the north, which will
be guarantor and financial motor of authoritarianism.

If the result is the advance of a process of democratization of politics
and the socialization of the economy, the prosperity and well-being of
all Cubans – and consequently the future of the nation – it would be
guaranteed, aided by the new international situation.

The Pope could now contribute another grain of sand, or perhaps throw in
a dose of sediment, to the good road of the Cuban nation and help all of
us to understand the need for dialog and the politics of communal
well-being supported by the social doctrine of the Church.

Welcome to Havana, Pope Francis.

Source: Let The Government Of Cuba Open Itself To Its People / 14ymedio,
Pedro Campos | Translating Cuba -
http://translatingcuba.com/let-the-government-of-cuba-open-itself-to-its-people-14ymedio-pedro-campos/