A Dangerous Situation
By Laritza Diversent
HAVANA, Cuba - The situation on the ground today in Cuba is extremely
dangerous and delicate. It has been clouded now by the widely
predicted, but diffuse renunciation, of Fidel Castro to the main people
in charge of running the country.
The new government has tried to demonstrate confidence and political
security. All of it is simple and superficial. They are conscious of
the crisis of legitimacy passing through the old communist direction.
It is correlative to the need to reabsorb this group along with having
to renew the social consensus.
The current hegemonic crisis of the governing elite results from the
failure of their ethical and political direction. From the beginning,
they decided to make propaganda to the Castrista ideology, but far from
obtaining the necessary social control in order to govern, the ways of
thinking and working have been standardized on a national level.
The persistence of the social conflicts and the lack of organization are
the best evidence of the current political crisis. When speaking about
the conflicts, I am referring to the development and increase in the
number of the social ills inside the country, such as administrative
corruption, illegal activities, delinquency, prostitution, etc. These
types of conduct go against the legally imposed order. Besides being a
means of subsistence, they constitute forms of dissent and rebellion
against the norms being imposed by the communist bureaucratic oligarchy
to conform.
In turn, the government is conscious of these phenomena and of the
consequences that they could bring in the future. Nevertheless, these
forms of social reaction currently do not pass for being primarily
demonstrations. This is exactly where the danger lies. The Cuban
people neither have the means nor the capacity of being social and
politically reoriented and organized. After almost fifty years, the
communist government has transformed the nation. A people full of
combative traditions became a mass of passive citizens.
A typical Cuban of today sees the State as something unconnected to
them. He feels that without his intervention something will occur
anyway. He has been led to believe that above him a phantasmagoric
omnipresent and autonomous divinity entity exists. Consequently, the
people are uninterested in the political culture. They are only
interested in the particular individual involved. The people may know
to read and to write, but the qualification is not culture.
The difficulties of our economic situation, the hunger and fear of
repression have alienated us from being part of the construction of our
own destiny. In the Cuban society, social groups with power don't
exist. There is no program for the transition to democracy, nor
established strategic alliances. It does not feel like political
pluralism.
At this moment, we have governmental elites that are willing to run the
risk to a dark future by making demagogic promises. The ones Castro
made last December 24 to the people of Santiago de Cuba to win their
votes exemplify this. But, the elites maintain their power by making
these sacrifices. They serve Raúl in order to crush and to decimate the
opposition of the political legitimacy it might have. They do not
intend to recognize such opposition, but they are conscious that it exists.
By renewing the Castrista's stay in power, the field is open to the use
of force as a solution. This can enliven the dark forces represented by
the charismatic, providential men of Cuban communism. Personalities
like the Castros.
As it currently is, the current political crisis unfolding in Cuba has
created a dangerous situation.
http://www.cubanet.org/CNews/y08/mar08/06cronica3english.html
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