“Cuba needs to reconcile to avoid committing suicide,” says the Council for Democratic Transition
14ymedio, Madrid, 5 February 2025 — The words of José Daniel Ferrer, speaking in favor of an eventual dialogue if the regime so desired, continue to be the talk of the island and abroad. The most recent endorsement of Ferrer, the leader of the Patriotic Union of Cuba (UNPACU), has come from the Council for the Democratic Transition in Cuba (CTDC).
In a statement published on Wednesday, the organization supports Ferrer’s position, and stresses that a peaceful transition must take into account even its detractors. “It is the way to guarantee that change is not a zero-sum game, in which the winners reproduce the ways, styles and language that then excluded them from living, participating and developing their talents and abilities, as well as their options, with complete freedom.”
In the document, shared exclusively with 14ymedio, the Council divides those who have expressed their opinion on Ferrer’s statements into two categories: rational critics and those who have carried out a “stoning.” In the Council’s opinion, one can disagree with the former, but the rational critics satisfy the “fundamental conditions for democratic discussion,” while it wants to respond to the latter by analyzing the implications of their position on what it considers the “eight premises of democracy.”
The first premise refers to the great historical figures who “left a legacy” because they were able to act from “forgiveness, reconciliation and inclusion.” Those cited include Nelson Mandela, Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King, Lech Walesa and Vaclav Havel. In this view, Ferrer “is related to those who make history, distant from those who shout at history.”
In this view, Ferrer “is related to those who make history, distant from those who shout at history.”
A second premise is that all Cubans must go through this path of forgiveness and reconciliation “before reaching, not always successfully, the democratic shore.” The CTDC believes that without this, one can only reach – individually and collectively – suicide. “Cuba needs to reconcile itself in order not to commit suicide,” it argues.
The organization also reproaches, in its third premise, that those who have personally suffered “the ordeal of repression and imprisonment” are not considered role models. “It is striking that the guardians of the moral code of resistance are those who have distanced themselves the most from it,” it says, in clear reference to those who speak from exile.
“Real, not symbolic, resistance is the starting point of politics,” the statement stresses regarding its fourth premise, which asks those who have an opinion to pay attention to the fact that, in order to change reality, it is necessary to be imaginative and flexible in political action, as they have sometimes been while resisting through their body and mind.
Furthermore, it goes on to refer to the fifth premise, “politics is the art of the possible.” This is the most extensive part of the CTDC statement and where the three options for a peaceful opposition are set out: “negotiation, the institutional path, and leading peaceful demonstrations that put pressure on those in power.” According to this reasoning, violence only leads to chaos that plays in favor of the elites “who take advantage of the collapses, while the people, the real ones, not those on the networks, are dying for it.”
The CTDC admits – and gives the examples of Nicaragua and Venezuela – that “dialogue does not necessarily lead to a final democratic solution,” but points out that being at a negotiating table already means giving visibility and voice to the opposition. “We have turned impotence in the face of the regime into a political position without realizing that dictatorships avoid dialogue because they do not like arguments. With dictatorships there is no dialogue, certainly, because they are not interested.”
“Without pluralism there is, in fact, no politics,” the statement states, calling for communism to be contrasted not with anti-communism, but with democracy.
The sixth and seventh premises are summed up, ultimately, in the importance of pluralism, which is essential for a democracy. “This commits to tolerance towards alternatives that we do not like, and respect for differences. That is why the term betrayal loses all meaning when it comes to democratic politics,” the statement insists. “Without pluralism there is, in fact, no politics,” it states, and calls for communism to be contrasted not with anti-communism, but with democracy.
Finally, the document calls for “de-monopolizing the homeland” and maintains that “disqualifying those who freely choose an option that democratically fits within” it “is in contradiction with what is preached.”
It also mentions the names of some opponents, not only Ferrer*, but also those who represent political positions very far from his and who are called, like “thousands of citizens” to a “historical crossroads.” “With a regime that has governed for more than six decades through repression, censorship and lack of freedoms, facing this challenge is difficult,” it acknowledges, but asks not to fall into the reproduction of “gestures, language and attitudes” similar to those of the current regime, since, it believes, “they continue to guarantee the power of yesterday’s victors.”
*Translator’s note: Listed names include José Daniel Ferrer, Félix Navarro, Luis Manuel Otero, Saylí Navarro, Sissi Abascal, María Cristina, Lisandra Góngora.
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