The Cuban Communist Party (PCC) has just made their National Conference document (scheduled to take place on January 28th 2012) public. It is like an extract from a manual containing the recipe to revive the ideological corpse, that political dinosaur that is communism in the 21st century. As if it were a self critique, the document mentions the confrontation of the illegalities, the corruption at all levels and the internal functioning of the partisan organization. In less than 8 pages, the ideological department of the PCC calls on its members to be creative and to allow, for once and for all, the administrators to carry out their primary function: allow the country to move forward.
46 years after re-founding its bases in Cuba, the PCC attempts to remove the brains from its militants, and asks them, almost as if it were a favor they have to do, to attend the base, to make themselves trustworthy among the militants and to make it possible for blacks and women to move up in rankings and levels in order to create an image of non-discrimination when it comes to a persons race, sex, or social class. It seems like the PCC’s Central Committee is trying to sew the old olive green rags, fixing up the old patches.
When a partisan organization (the only one that is legally allowed in the country) prepares itself to discuss topics regarding militants, the internal organization, and its established members nearly a century after its foundation, it is tearing apart its own previous jargon. If the communist leadership on the island would focus on increasing production and liberating the productive forces without prejudice and would have social well being as a goal, then perhaps there would be at least a glimmer of hope in the dark well we find ourselves submerged in. But the news coming from the island tells us otherwise.
On Saturday October 22nd, the ideologist of the PCC, Jose Ramon Machado Ventura visited the municipality of San German, located in Holguin province. Three days prior to his arrival, various homes of dissidents were surrounded by soldiers, police officers, and Interior Ministry officials who claim to represent State Security.
On the afternoon of the 22nd the peaceful dissident Eliecer Palma Pupo was detained in my house, right in front of my children. He was taken by a strong military operation made up of more than a dozen agents, a Operational Guard Jeep, and a National Revolutionary Police vehicle. They handcuffed him, pressing his hands against his back, and took him to the political police barracks known as Pedernales. As I read this note to my editors, he had still not been released.
The same was done to Jose Antonio Triguero Mullet, a 68 year old man who was violently attacked and taken in front of his young granddaughters. He was released 4 hours later. Machado Ventura’s visit was preceded by the repairing of holes in the street and the lending of ambulances and fire trucks from Holguin. As for the workers of the sugar plant, they were exempt that day from their habitual chores, while the market was replenished with some foods, which has not happened for a very long time.
The small town was practically frozen that afternoon.
Translated by Raul G.
28 October 2011
