‘The economic sector cannot be limited’

Intellectuals of different tendencies debate an agenda of political reform for Cuba

By Gerardo Arreola

From the Mexican newspaper La Jornada

HAVANA – Under the auspices of a Catholic publication, intellectuals of several generations and different leanings debated in Havana an agenda of political reform for Cuba. The event was uncommon on the island but reflected a growing debate about public life.

Change in Cuba “cannot be limited to the economic sector,” said academician and former diplomat Carlos Alzugaray. In the political arena, change “is inevitable; it will happen, one way or another.”

The starting point was the collection of essays For a Consensus on Democracy, which includes an unusual debate between the Catholic Roberto Veiga and the Marxist Julio César Guanche about the Cuban political system.

To publish the two positions together, without insults or disqualifications, “is exceptional” in Cuba, said university professor Hiram Hernández. Sociologist Mayra Espina considered that this excercise “ends the era of angels and demons” and opens “a new stage in debates” in the country.

The documents appeared in the past two years in the Catholic magazine Espacio Laical (Lay Space), which, to present the collected works, organized an open forum at the Felix Varela Cultural Center, formerly a seminary.

At the session, attended by nearly 100 people, oppositionist Reinaldo Escobar asked that this circle of discussions be opened to other currents. Attorney and biochemist Dmitri Prieto remarked that in the exchange of opinions there is still “an absent major character: the world of popular life.”

In the essay, and during the debate that followed its presentation, hot topics in the Cuban political system emerged, such as the single party, the multiple parties, the electoral system, the exercise of power, the elections and the attributes of the Chief of State, the social organizations, citizens’ rights, and the Constitution of 1976, as amended in 1992.

In the documents and in the oral discussion, a broad range of opinions was heard, including some opinions that the official media usually disqualifies with irritation, to say the least.

In the foreword to the essays, the deputy editor of Espacio Laical, Lenier González, said that his magazine, along with Activist Network Critical Observatory and the project State of SATS are three new platforms for debate in the country, representing Catholicism, Marxism and liberalism, respectively.

He added that many of the participants in those circles got their political and intellectual upbringing in “another of the most important forums for debate on the island: the magazine Temas (Themes).” In their essays, Veiga and Guanche debate democracy and socialism and Cuba’s political future.

Veiga, a lawyer and editor of Espacio Laical, acknowledges “the legitimacy of many socialist bases” regarding justice, but believes that it is “impossible to pretend that the ideal of justice in a society is the particular criterion of an ideology, wise and positive though it may be. Life and truth are very rich and have a plural universe.”

 “Whether we like it or not,” Veiga says, “sooner or later Cuba will have to integrate fully into the world’s mechanisms, the same that give life to a global architecture of a capitalist nature, because if we don’t assume this challenge we could end up in the most awful misery.” He maintains that he is concerned about “the lack of democratic channels” to process the demands for justice and equality.

Guanche, also a lawyer and a professor at the University of Havana, replies that “democracy so far has served as a mechanism for the legitimization of a particular type of accumulation, the accumulation of capital,” in a way that “subordinates democracy to a strictly mercantile ideology and restricts the understanding of human rights. Because of this, democracy needs socialism.”

He adds that “the failure of real socialism and capitalism redefine the terms of the debate: socialism is democracy. To this end, formal rights are as basic as material rights; rights are either total or don’t exist. To be an alternative to the global threat under which we’re living, 21st-Century socialism has to be a simultaneous affirmation of the two. Bread and freedom must be saved together or condemned together.”

Both men recognize their mutual contributions and debate about the Constitution. Veiga highlights the doctrinal principles of Article One (political freedom, social justice, individual and collective well-being, human solidarity) but adds that they are still not reflected in Cuban practice. Guanche points out that the principal problem of Article One is the lack of mechanisms to protect the institutional system and effectively enforce the individual rights that have already been established.

The document also contains an essay on the Constitution by the Vicar of the Catholic Church, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes, a descendant of the insurgent hero of the same name, as well as a debate about the same topic and another about reforms in the Communist Party of Cuba.