Friday, February 18, 2005

Preparing for Democracy in Cuba

I was skimming through the news on BBC when I found this interesting article about a Cuban dissident, Oswaldo Paya who is trying to push for the formation of an international comittee to plan for a democratic reform in Cuba. He even invited the Cuban government to participate in the project. I was wondering what everyone thought on the subject of what will happen in Cuba after the death of Fidel? Many people say that Raul Castro, Fidel's successor is too weak a leader to maintain the current government. Will democratic reforms be in fact possible?

1 comment:

Huck said...

I happen to agree with michelle on this question. What Castro and his current regime represents is, in many ways, anachronistic as an institutional model. That's not to say that his socialist vision will be completely abandoned. In fact, I think it won't. What I do think will happen, though, is a transition to a democratic regime in which popular sovereignty as expressed through a more open and transparent and tolerant political process will be the operational norm. What I see for Cuba in the future is not US-style democracy, but rather a democracy that looks more like contemporary Brazil or Venezuela, with a decided ideological tilt to the left, albeit within the context of the basic parameters of procedural and qualitative democracy.