This coming October the Cuban government plans to hold the election “of silverware” to choose the municipal and provincial “spoons” that don’t “stab or cut,” because power is concentrated at the top and implicates their closest cadres at the national level.
There are some comical ironies, because the delegates to the Assemblies of People’s Power — the Cuban parliament — are chosen by direct and secret ballot, while the reelection to those in the highest positions, occurs in front of the candidates and by acclamation. Anyone who doesn’t raise their hand , and so abstains, will never again be “elected by the people” for any other office.
In the neighborhood where I live they are already immersed in the routine mechanics of the election. On my block they called all the neighbors to participate in the electoral process, except me. Not that I mind. Everyone has known my political views for years and so they received the order to marginalize me. But, am I not one more Cuban citizen? What do they mean when they talk about participative democracy, when they discriminate against someone — I’m sure I’m not the only one — by the way they think and act?
Of course the totalitarian leaders and their automatic subordinate apparatus, ignore that I have the right to be taken into account — in accordance with Cuban laws — and equally, to not participate. They disagree that to BOTAR — to offer or express — our opinions, is the most democratic, authentic and best way to VOTAR — to vote.
September 18 2012
