[NYTr] Alarcon: The Cuban Revoluton is a Supre-bold Adventure

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Progreso Weekly - Oct 4, 2007
http://progreso-weekly.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=170&Itemid=1


"The Cuban Revolution is a super-bold adventure"

[Excerpts from a radio interview with RICARDO ALARCÓN DE QUESADA, member
of the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party
of Cuba and president of the National Assembly of the People's Power.
The interview was done in Montreal, Canada, during the 27th Congress of
the Latin American Studies Association (LASA), Sept. 7-8, 2007. It was
broadcast on Miami's Radio 1210 (AM); the interviewer was Edmundo
García. Words [in brackets] are the editor's clarifications.]

GARCÍA: In your most recent statement about U.S.-Cuba relations, you
said that Cuba is willing to sit down and settle the dispute with the
U.S. without including the topic of the embargo, a topic that Cuba is
sensitive about. Would you place that statement in context? I read it
in the BBC [website].

ALARCON: To be exact, the BBC asked me if we would sit down to talk, to
negotiate with the U.S., if the embargo was not lifted. I told them
that we have already done that, that I have done it several times, that
we even have reached agreement, that we have negotiated with the U.S.
government, even though the current bilateral situation has not changed.

For example, we discussed and negotiated an immigration agreement in
1984. Later, that came to a crisis when Radio Martí went on the air. We
again negotiated to get past that crisis and reactivate the immigration
accord by linking it to the debate and the negotiation -- which is
something some people forget -- about the topic of radio broadcasts
from one country to the other on standard wavelength, which is how
Radio Martí worked. We were aiming for a mutually acceptable solution.
The U.S. agreed.

The United States (at that time Reagan was president, not Clinton, and
ran a more conservative administration) accepted the principle that
those radio broadcasts were negotiable and that finding a mutually
acceptable arrangement was legitimate. We slipped into a big mess,
technically very complicated, and we spent months looking at the
possibilities of broadcasting from Cuba to [the U.S.] and the whole
thing is technically very complicated because the United States' radio
spectrum is very saturated. You need to know that ...

GARCÍA: How expensive is it for Cuba to try to jam -- or actually jam
-- those broadcasts from Radio and TV Martí and other signals emanating
from the U.S.? I mean, in terms of money.

ALARCÓN: [It costs] practically nothing. Nothing, really. It has
allowed some of our specialists and technicians to become very familiar
with ...

GARCÍA: In other words, is not very complex?

ALARCÓN: To me it is, because I don't understand anything about it, but
it seems that it's quite a simple matter, quite inexpensive for Cuba.
Unfortunately, the broadcasts are also very inexpensive for the United
States.

GARCÍA: No, Alarcón, it is very expensive! It costs $36 million a year!
[The broadcasts] have no effect, yet they cost $36 million a year!

ALARCÓN: Listen, Edmundo, that story goes back to the year 1984 or '85,
that is, back more than 20 years. And the millions you mention are
spent every year. Add it up, one year after another.

GARCÍA: The elections to the Assembly of the People's Power have begun.
Will Fidel Castro be nominated?

ALARCÓN: To what? To municipal delegate? No, because the process is
still in that [early] phase. No. To the best of my knowledge, nobody
has nominated him.

GARCÍA: Will Fidel Castro's health allow him to enter the process Cuba
is now developing within the framework of the elections?

ALARCÓN: Look, people keep repeating something I said -- an answer I
gave -- back in March, I believe, when a foreign journalist asked me:
"Do you think that Fidel Castro will be re-elected President of the
Council of State?" I told him, "I myself don't know if I'll be
re-elected deputy because I cannot nominate myself. If I were a deputy
at that moment, I would nominate him again."

That was my answer and remains the same today. Because you must realize
that [the nomination] would be made before the elections for the
Council of State, which will be early next year. And there's a
principle that operates in our system (I think it's more or less the
same everywhere) called voluntarism. Nobody can make you a candidate if
you don't want to be one.

GARCÍA: [Oppositionist] Oswaldo Payá Sardiñas is asking for the Cuban
election laws to be rescinded because [the oppositionists] don't have
any real chance of participating. Do the oppositionists have a chance?
Do the Cuban Constitution and the election laws allow Payá or Martha
Beatriz [Roque] or whoever to run for office without any problem? Or is
there some obstacle?

ALARCÓN: [Payá] is asking exactly what the Bush Plan asks. Exactly the
same. There is no difference between the two. For a very simple reason:
What Payá proposes in his so-called Varela Project -- and he
concentrates a lot on the subject of the elections -- is to change the
Cuban electoral system, to put an end to what we're doing now, in
September, when the people gather everywhere, in all the neighborhoods
nationwide, and nominate whoever they wish, whether they're called
Oswaldo Payá or Martha Beatriz Roque, whoever.

If a person has the votes, he will be a candidate. Look, Edmundo, how
can an individual become a candidate if he doesn't have a single person
willing to say he wants [that individual] elected? Supposedly,
everybody has at least someone -- a nephew, a friend ...

GARCÍA: Has the Assembly heard if any of them intends to run for office?

ALARCÓN: That's precisely the key to the question. What does the United
States want? For the people not to nominate the candidates but to adopt
a system -- I'm quoting Bush here -- like the American system? For
voter registration not to be automatic, but to be the way it is in the
United States? Check out the steps needed to become a voter in [the
U.S.], the red tape people have to go through, the efforts they must
make during working hours, the work all that entails.

GARCÍA: There is a rumor that a grand jury in New Jersey has
technically ended its 18-month term and that, for that reason, the U.S.
government's appeal against [Luis] Posada Carriles on immigration
charges has expired. I am talking about speculations. In this case, I
understand that the Cuban authorities reportedly have resumed
cooperation with [the U.S., providing] information and data. How do you
see the Cuban position, regarding the case of the New Jersey grand jury?

ALARCÓN: Well, I can't tell you anything on the basis of a speculation,
because I haven't the slightest idea of what they're going to do. We
have cooperated with the FBI and the U.S. authorities every time
they've asked for cooperation, every time they have asked for
information or data -- and they have done so on some occasions -- and
they've wound up going to Havana and receiving whatever they've
requested. So, this is not rare; particularly because it's a duty.

You can't tell the world that you oppose terrorism and then tell
someone, "well, no, because I don't like you, I won't give you the data
about someone who's in your country and is a terrorist." We are obliged
to give it to them. We denounce, condemn and criticize the double
standard of the U.S., because it imprisons our five comrades for
fighting terrorism and at the same time it protects Posada Carriles.

We have to be consistent. When they ask us if we know anything about
something in particular, we say to them: "Yes, look, this is what we
know about this." 

GARCÍA: Some months ago, there was a strange deportation from Cuba --
an American living in Cuba who was turned over to the U.S. authorities.
Was this a case of cooperation? Was it a special instance or is it
something that Cuba is willing to discuss with the U.S. and cooperate? 

ALARCÓN: Well, on several occasions we have deported Americans. We have
returned them. We have turned over criminals sought by the U.S.
authorities, people we were not interested in having [in Cuba.] What
sense would it make to keep them?

GARCÍA: Alarcón, the case of The Five has altered U.S. public opinion.
We are waiting for the [Appeals Court] judges [in Atlanta] to hand down
a ruling and we don't know when that will happen. If that ruling does
not favor their release, would the case go up to the Supreme Court?

ALARCÓN: Up to the Supreme Court, I believe; up to the [International]
Court [of Justice] in The Hague; up to the interplanetary court; up to
wherever it must go. Let there not be the slightest doubt about that. I
believe you're right; it's a topic that is beginning to have greater
visibility in the United States, which is important, because very
serious things have happened, even this past year.

For example, Aragoncillo -- I believe he's called Leonardo Aragoncillo
of New Jersey -- this man had been working in the White House with two
Vice Presidents, Al Gore and [Dick] Cheney (LAUGHTER) -- yes, the guy
is bipartisan -- and worked in their office. At the time he was
arrested, he was an FBI analyst, after he had committed a crime.

This man was not charged with conspiring to commit espionage, even
though he was found in possession of 736 secret documents from the
White House! And they sentenced him to 10 years!

GARCÍA: Some people criticized me because on our first interview, when
we broached these topics, I didn't ask you why Cuba was not defending
Ana Belén Montes, serving a 25-year prison sentence in the U.S. Will
Cuba ever assume a public stance regarding Ana Belén Montes?

ALARCÓN: No, I wouldn't say that. The problem is that one has to take
into account what is most convenient for the person in question and her
defense team, and what they might consider at a specific moment. Of
course, I don't know her and I don't know her case, except for what
I've read. But anyone who has sacrificed his- or herself for our
country, for its security, its independence, deserves our full respect
and our best wishes for her well-being.

GARCÍA: For the first time, we see people who are not Cuban leaders
opining publicly about Fidel's health and the processes that might
happen in Cuba in the future. I'm referring to Mariela Castro. Is this
something different? She is not a high-ranking functionary.

ALARCÓN: No, Mariela is a young woman who grew up in the Revolution; a
person with great professional and moral authority. Very consistent,
too, it seems to me.

GARCÍA: Is this the generational change you spoke to me about, two
years ago in New York City?

ALARCÓN: That's one of the changes. Those are the reflections, what one
sees. Imagine, "time passes and we're getting old," as the song says. 

GARCÍA: Are Cubans afraid that the fact that some of the leaders'
children -- such as [Carlos] Lage Codorniú and Mariela Castro --
participate in this process might be seen as negative? 

ALARCÓN: Lage Codorniú is the son of [Vice President] Carlos Lage
[Dávila] but he is his own man. Mariela is a clear example of that.
Mariela is the daughter of Raúl [Castro] and Vilma [Espín], and she was
brought up in a very special, very solid home. Intellectually, she is
very well formed. She says things and gives opinions that a traditional
politician would keep to himself. 

GARCÍA: Could that be a political strategy? Allowing certain people to
publicly give their opinions, people who don't have the same weight
that -- let's say -- you have? 

ALARCÓN: No, no, because I've said the same things, too. 

GARCÍA: Do you maintain any contact with Fidel's children?

ALARCÓN: With the older son, yes, perhaps for generational reasons. He
and I have worked a lot in events like this [LASA congress.] I have not
had many dealings with [Fidel's] other children or with Raúl's. With
Mariela, yes, because Mariela is a fighter in this issue of gay rights.
Contact has been necessary.

GARCÍA: Are you in favor of homosexual marriages? And I ask for your
views as president of Parliament, not as a private person.

ALARCÓN: I am fully in favor of everything that Mariela has proposed
about modifying our Code. And we'll do that someday. We have to work
and do it democratically; we must persuade, convince, explain the issue
[of gay rights] to the people. The question of matrimony is something
else; it's more controversial.

GARCÍA: Are you in agreement with the position of the Roman Catholic
Church?

ALARCÓN: It's not just because the Catholic Church says so, but I do
believe that we need to grant due respect not only to the Catholics but
also to all the other religions that consider matrimony as a sacrament.
So, it seems to me that redefining marriage would be disrespectful; it
would needlessly create an additional conflict. Homosexuals and
lesbians suffer enough prejudice and discrimination without getting the
Church involved, and all that mess.

Let's keep the issues separate. I would not modify matrimony,
traditional marriage, as defined by the law or defined by the Church.
What's needed is not an amendment to the laws of God but an amendment
to the [Cuban] Code. Now then, same-sex couples should have the same
rights and responsibilities as different-sex couples. 

GARCÍA: An Internet debate is going on, involving Cuban journalists
like Soledad Cruz and other analysts, where there seems to be a variety
of ideas or projects to transform the economy. Some say this has to do
with what Raúl said in his July 26 speech in Camagüey and at the
National Assembly.

Later comes an article by Fidel, "The super-revolutionaries," that
alludes to the things Soledad Cruz mentioned, things that someone else
answers later on.

Some people say Cubans will be allowed to sell their houses, their
cars. Others say that a "white card" will not be necessary to leave
Cuba. There's all this stirring and some people say there is a real
debate within the Cuban leadership itself regarding these topics.

We don't see where the skein begins. We know what Raül says, but then
Soledad pops up and says something else, then Fidel comes up with his
article. What is really happening? What are the transformations and
when are we going to see some of these [changes] and how far will they
go? 

ALARCÓN: Listen, what you've put on the table is a pile of stuff.
(LAUGHTER) What's happening is very simple. Life must be just that:
discussion, transformation, a constant rethinking of what you do and
how you do it. Imagine. Now we are talking, arguing, trying to convince
many people that we need to eliminate every form of discrimination.

GARCÍA: There is a hard line within the Party itself, within the Cuban
leadership itself. There are men who take a hard line and there are men
who, while still revolutionaries, are reformists and have another
vision. Is there a debate of trends within the country's leadership?

ALARCÓN: [A debate] of trends, no, because [the country] is a
structured, organized entity. Of course there are differences, because
if we all were to think alike we would be the most boring people in the
world, and we Cubans are not like that. Of course there are differences
of criteria, of opinion, etc., but the Revolution, the Party
(PAUSES) ... I would say to you, Edmundo, that the level of cohesion,
of unity is the highest I can remember in all these years. Which
doesn't mean we don't have much to discuss, but we can debate within a
large fraternity.

GARCÍA: The owner of a house will be able to sell it, the owner of a
car will be able to sell it. The cafeterias and the paladares [private
restaurants] will return. People will get permits so they can work as
self-employed entrepreneurs. Are these things coming or not? Are they
being discussed, are they bogged down? Some people say yes, others say
no, and others are trying to find out.

ALARCON: Well, I think some will come through; others, I don't think
so. But I'm not the person to confirm that this is true and this is
not. 

GARCIA: Or when something will show up.

ALARCÓN: One has to keep looking, watching. Cuba is a living organism
and, like every living organism, is undergoing a transformation. 

GARCÍA: Would you say that measure and experience are the two
attributes adopted by the Party and the Cuban leadership in this
process of transformation initiated by Raúl? 

ALARCÓN: Measure and experience. And also constancy and systematism.

GARCÍA: And adventure. How about adventure? No boldness?

ALARCÓN: The Cuban Revolution has been a super-bold adventure from its
first day.