[NYTr] Cuba is Ready for Transitions: EFE Intvw w/Mariela Castro

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

EFE via Progreso Weekly - Aug 9, 2007
http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=89&Itemid=1

Interview with Mariela Castro: 

Cuba is ready for transformations, with or without Fidel
                                                                                                    
HAVANA --(EFE)-- Cuba is ready for a process of "necessary
transformations" with its historical leader Fidel Castro or after he
disappears, and without plunging into chaos, according to Mariela
Castro, niece of the chief of the Revolution and daughter of acting
President Raúl Castro.

In an interview with the Spanish news agency Efe, Mariela Castro (born
in Havana in 1962), a psychologist and director of the National Center
for Sexual Education (Cenesex), and an artificer of the struggle pro
homosexual rights in Cuba, defended the need to promote internal debate
and enrich the Revolution, with an eye to the future.

One year after Fidel Castro delegated power on his brother Raúl, 76,
because of a serious intestinal disease, Mariela Castro admits: "The
fear we all felt of losing our leader is closer to us now." Fidel
Castro will mark his 81st birthday next Monday, Aug. 13. 

"We are learning to live with our leader growing old, and people -- as
they grow old -- must let others look after them. But Fidel never
allowed that; Fidel always devoted himself to looking after us," she
said. 

"For the first time, the people are assimilating the process of his
aging, the process that the Revolution must go on without him, led
either by my father or other leaders who come along; with the leaders
who emerge, because sometimes leaders appear when you least expect it,"
she added.

She assured a listener that "the situation in Cuba is such that no
chaos will ensue" and that "Cuban society is prepared for a process of
necessary transformations to uphold the revolutionary process with or
without Fidel." 

Among those "necessary transformations" she included economic measures,
social improvements and the improvement of the mechanisms of governance
so they may be "more functional." The objective is to make the Cuban
people more responsible to its reality, to its revolutionary process,
"even when the historical leaders are no longer around," she said. 

Mariela Castro is convinced that Cuban society is mature and prepared
enough for debate, although she admitted that perhaps not everyone is
similarly prepared to assume that process. "Cuba is a country that
needs permanent debate, because there is a high level of culture and
education, and people need to participate. This is designed for
participation, but the problem is that not all the leaders know how to
channel the participative processes, and that's a pity," she said. 

Most Cubans are betting that the Revolution "will continue to
enrich as a fair socioeconomic process," she said, rejecting "that
ridiculous transition that the Americans and the 'worms' are planning
with much opportunism." "Worms" is a contemptuous name for Cubans who
fled from Cuba when the Revolution triumphed. 

That's what her father has been working on ever since he assumed power
one year ago, Mariela Castro said. She pointed to her father's message
of July 26, when -- on the Revolution's most important date -- Raúl
Castro delivered a self-critical speech in which he referred to the
problems that boggle the economy and to the need for structural changes.

"When someone delivers a message like that on the 26th of July, he
means that this is the political line and it is a fundamental step
forward," she said. "It means that people are already working on the
issue and that they will continue to work on it."

Raúl Castro is a man with "practical sense," a "strategist" who
prepares "the necessary conditions" before introducing a bill, Mariela
said. And that was the mechanism that preceded his July 26 speech, she
said.

"When he makes a proposal, he works on it for a long time and creates
the conditions for consensus," she explained.

The image of a "hard" and orthodox man attributed to his father is
inaccurate, Mariela said. Instead, he favors dialogue, enjoys
collective work and is "very flexible, very sensitive to the problems
of people. He truly wants to solve them."

She acknowledged that "not everyone" thinks the same about Raúl
Castro's style, but maintained that what's important is that "things
are decided collectively" by the country's leaders, "with much respect."

Fidel Castro also works with this formula, she said, although "his
moral authority is so great and his positions are so well argumented
that they are usually adopted. It's difficult to think about other
alternatives." 

Looking to the future, Mariela Castro is confident of a
revolutionary project "that belongs to everyone and is for the good of
everyone." 

"If I didn't believe that it will be so, I wouldn't feel that I belong
to the Revolution. If the Revolution, as proclaimed by José Martí, is
with everyone and for the good of everyone, it is also my project. And
I am confident, because I know that this is the will of the leadership
of the Revolution," she asserted. Looking ahead 10 years, she sees a
Cuba deep in a "process of strengthened democratic participation,"
which -- she stresses -- must be promoted beginning now.