Ballots in Boots / Rosa Maria Rodriguez

The model that has governed my country for the last 54 years didn’t always have  constitution nor hold elections. The bases of these were created in 1976 — after the government had been in power for 17 years — as a wise move to legitimize their leadership of Cuba and create a political-social structure that allowed them to prolong their domain. And so it proved.

The created the organs of popular power to enshrine Marxism and perpetuate “Made in China” socialism, to justify a model of participative democracy that is not democracy because it is not plural, nor is there a separation of powers, nor is it participative, because it discriminates and Cubans with points of view that differ from the official line cannot hold office.

Democracy of a small group and one party is a bluff. It’s a monochromatic political landscape in the absence of ideological colors, the unhealthy totalitarianism of peoples, the fattening of egos with praise, in short, it is a single party, despite what the Cuban government says, it is a predator of the democratic values of every nation.

21 April 2013