An article that appeared months ago in The Dominion, a Canadian newspaper, reviews a book by Isaac Saney touting a “different” perspective on Cuba. One quote from that article in particular has sparked a question for me: “Saney points to the last three elections–in 1993, 1998, and 2003–which were open to observation by foreign and domestic journalists. These three national elections ended up being plebiscites for the revolution. Over 90 per cent of the Cuban electorate–who cast their vote in secret and are not required to vote–turned out in each election, and each time over 90 per cent votedall 601 national candidates “up”, in a gesture of solidarity with the government and revolutionary constitution.”
I’d be interested in perspectives on attitude of the Cuban population toward Castro–are these statistics a reliable indicator that Castro has the vast majority of Cuban sentiment behind him, or do they reflect the extent of corruption in Castro’s government and the collusion of at least some media outlets?
To ask a larger question: if there is any reliable way to know (a potent question in itself), does the Cuban population genuinely support its Communist government, and would a successful American-backed change of regime be generally welcomed, hated, or disregarded?
Significant quotes from the Dominion article:
– When prominent leftist intellectuals, the Canadian Government, Human Rights Watch, the BBC, the Globe and Mail and countless ideologically diverse sources agree that Cuba is a fundamentally undemocratic place, the task of explaining that they’re all mistaken in serious ways is a difficult one at best.
– While influential, the Communist party does not wield direct administrative power. Each time the party holds a congress, massive nation-wide discussions are held, providing a venue for people to voice concerns and discuss a variety of issues and giving substance to the party’s guiding role.
– Unsurprisingly, Saney asks the reader to consider the context of unrelenting US-funded terrorism, economic strangulation, and occasional military attacks. A context which has led Cubans, he says, into a “siege mentality”. This mentality, however, is “based on a very real and constant threat;” it is a kind of “rational paranoia”. The long list of documented US aggression includes assassination attempts (including a CIA attempt to hire Mafia hitmen to kill Castro), terrorist bombings, a major “propaganda and disinformation campaign” and the blockade.