The Disparagement of Our Heroes Should End

The Disparagement of Our Heroes Should End / Dora Leonor Mesa
Posted on April 25, 2015

Dora Leonor Mesa, 24 April 2015 — The photos of Cuban President Raúl
Castro conversing with his U.S. counterpart Barack Obama during the
Seventh Summit of the Americas are still appearing on the principal
pages of the world's most important newspapers.

Images of Cuban volunteers who, risking their lives, went to fight the
fatal Ebola virus in Africa, those who help disaster victims in Haiti
and other places, i.e. Brazil, Pakistan, Chile, etc., have also been
given prime placement in the broadcast media and the most prestigious
news agencies.

In Panama, during the forums of the Seventh Summit of the Americas,
Cuban men and women of the State-sponsored civil society also appeared
on the front pages of every known communication medium in the world.

These fervent social actors achieved unqualified success in defending
their ideas. They took part in public acts wherein they expressed their
opinions with yelling, vulgarities, threats and physical violence. The
devotion of these social activists is so intense that they are holier
than His Holiness, Pope Francis, himself.

To be fair, it must be clarified that in Panama they behaved moderately
compared with how, back home, they treat human rights defenders and the
Ladies in White with their deadly gladioli.

Thanks to the show put on by the State-sponsored civil society, which
the official Cuban press calls "historic participation," millions of
concerned spectators around the world discovered that the "mercenaries
in the service of the Empire" are respectable Cuban citizens, besieged
by raging fanatics masked as intellectuals, journalists, leaders, students….

According the newspaper, Juventud Rebelde, (1) Cuba made many
contributions to the forums for young people, being that there were no
mercenaries (or, "Cubans," it is understood) present.

At the Democratic Governance and Citizen Participation meeting at the
Civil Society Forum, the Cuban delegation from the governmental civil
society retreated because of the presence of mercenaries. In reality,
this was an excellent tactic to hide their renown ignorance of debate
subjects. The sociological theories of the Frankfurt School, with
Habermas at the head, are a taboo subject. The Karl Marx taught in the
universities is a free version of the Theories of Conflict and so it is
with many other theories and books that are not even mentioned.

The Pot Calling the Kettle Black

There are various articles published in the official Cuban press
describing what comprises the real Cuban civil society (assuming a state
concept). Regardless of the substantial theoretical contributions that
these make to the social sciences, the very Constitution of the Republic
of Cuba decrees: The Cuban nation is not under the Rule of Law.

It looks like a case of the pot calling the kettle black, given that the
highest Cuban court, the Supreme Tribunal, receives "instructions" from
the Council of States, other institutions, personages, etc. This is no
surprise to us who live on the Island. We remain immutable if state
entities and even certain very special individuals make a mockery, with
total impunity, of the rulings and jurisprudence of the Supreme
Tribunal. For the incredulous, it will be enough to confirm this reality
by asking various individuals, reading the Cuban press, and watching
national television.

Despite what happens in Cuba, the disparagement of our heroes of today
and yesterday should stop. Nobody, NOBODY, has the right to defame, with
self-promoting intentions, the generous and committed character of any
Cuban man or woman; for we belong to one nation, even if the group we
defend is offensive to others.

At this time, some of the "elect" among the participants in the forums
of the Seventh Summit, are exclaiming on the Internet, in the
newspapers, and on television programs:

"Oh, we were not violent! This is a manipulation of the facts by the
powerful!"

Please! Save the hypocrisy. Do they really think that the whole world is
like Cuba, burdened with 19th-century technology and information? (3)

The provided "cuban government-style" civil society, since its arrival
in Panama, was an international embarrassment for the nation,
dishonoring our heroes and luminaries of yesterday and today.

Civil Society or Troglodytes Emerging from their Caves?

They should be ashamed!

To be judged as traitors is the least they deserve.

Bibliography

1. Juventud Rebelde Special Team Report (21 April, 2015). We went to
Panama with duffel bags of ideas. Juventud Rebelde newspaper. Print
Edition. Cuba. Page 4.

2. National Assembly of the People's Power (31 January, 2003).
Constitution of the Republic of 24 February, 1975. Official Gazette of
the Republic (3). Extraordinary, 7. Cuba.

Article 90. Attributes of the Council of State are:

h) impart instructions of a general character to the tribunals, via the
Council of Government of the People's Supreme Tribunal;

i) impart instructions to the General Prosecutor of the Republic;

Article 121. The tribunals constitute a system of state organs,
structured with functional independence from any another, and
hierarchically subordinate to the National Assembly of the People's
Power, and the Council of State…

Article 128. The General Prosecutor of the Republic comprises an organic
unit subordinate only to the National Assembly of the People's Power,
and the Council of State.

The General Prosecutor of the Republic received direct instruction from
the Council of State…

Chapter XV. CONSTITUTIONAL REFORM

Article 137. This Constitution can be reformed only by the National
Assembly of the People's Power via an agreement adopted in a roll-call
vote, by a majority no less than two-thirds of the total number of
members, except in what pertains to the political, social and economic
system, whose character is irrevocably established in Chapter I, Article 3….

Article 3. Socialism and the political and social revolutionary system
established in this Constitution – proven through years of heroic
resistance in the face of aggressions of all types and the economic war
waged by the governments of the most mighty imperialist power that has
ever existed, and having demonstrated its capacity to transform the
country and create a wholly new and just society – is irrevocable, and
Cuba will never again return to capitalism.

3. ITU. International Telecommunication Union. Measuring the Information
Society. 2012 edition. pp. 21. Available:
http://www.itu.int/ITU-D/ict/publications/idi/material/2012/MIS2012
without Annex 4.pdf

In a list of 157 countries, Cuba was ranked 106 in the Development
Indicators drawn up by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU)
in 2012. Cuba, with an average of 2.77, is the third country with the
lowest information and communication technologies – ICT – development
index (IDI) in Latin America, exceeded only by Honduras and Nicaragua.
The ITU ranking is weighed-down – in Cuba's case notably so – by the low
level of Internet access throughout the country, which is one of the
sub-indicators in the IDI. Cuba placed at 151, the fifth worst placement
in the ranking.

Translated by: Alicia Barraqué Ellison

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