Versión Español
By Nelson Rodríguez Chartrand
There is only one thing that makes the Cuban constitution notable, and that is the fact that it’s a document that contains within its pages, like no other, the greatest lies the human mind has ever conceived.
Right from the first article and clause, they tell you the Cuban state is transparent, and that Cubans live in a democracy, which is a real insult to the intelligence and dignity of all of the island’s people.
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How can they speak of democracy in a society governed by a dictator that has personal involvement with all branches of powers of the state — legislative, executive and judicial?
Well, that’s how it is ladies and gentleman. It’s incredible to see how the Cuban Magna Carta, in only five articles, has created the perfect dictator. In case you were wondering, those articles were 74, 89, 96, 121 and 128 — those that put the three branches at his mercy.
But wait, there’s more regarding the powers in question, and that is that the worst article giving away power to this dictator is article 5. It gives the Communist Party of Cuba the power to have the grand dictator that it has, and for that dictator to exhibit maximum authority.
Of course that was what Montesquieu was referring to when he conceived of the essential condition that democracy must exist with a classical division of powers.
Only those of us who have seen and lived the dictatorship over six decades can know in its true form the dire consequences that cause the concentration of power to convert its people into slaves.
There exists other realities that make even more implausible the idea of the existence of democracy in Cuba.
Can there be democracy in Cuba when freedom of expression is only a privilege granted to those that share the same ideology imposed by a great dictator (article 53)?
Can democracy exist in Cuba when freedom of association is limited to the organization created by the dictatorship in the first place (article seven)?
Can democracy exist in Cuba if Cubans don’t have the right to choose freely their own political system (article 137)?
Obviously not.
I could spend hours unravelling the lies of the first articles of the Cuban constitution and in regards to the existence or lack of existence of democracy in Cuba, but I think that what I have said so far should be sufficient. And if not, I simply invite you to any Sunday meeting of the White Women (Damas de Blanco) to see how democracy in Cuba has been dispelled before our eyes.
Nelson Rodríguez Chartrand is a Cuban lawyer and a member of the Anarch-Capitalist Club of Cuba.
