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Cuba: A New Party a Candidate for President for 24 Hours

HAVANA TIMES – Cuban online activism experienced about 24 hours of intense controversy at the beginning of last week. It was an interesting day for understanding how Cubans think and feel about what “doing politics” regarding Cuba might mean today. What’s fascinating is not the event itself, but how, during that day and afterward, people responded with opinions to something many interpret as a sign of a changing era.

A young Cuban influencer, mother of three, living in Spain, announced on April 27, that she was founding a new center-right political party with its own objectives. The news immediately went viral, as it was interpreted as a self-nomination for the Presidency.

Amelia Calzadilla, who holds a degree in English from the University of Havana and is a former tourism worker in Cuba, proclaimed on Facebook the creation of the new Liberal Orthodox Party of Cuba, along with some of its ideological principles.

Social media was flooded within hours with posts of support, rejection, or mockery, while the country lives in a tense atmosphere shaped by the humanitarian crisis, uncertainty about the near future amid behind-the-scenes dialogue/dispute with the Trump Administration, threats of armed attack, and simultaneous media campaigns from the Cuban establishment (mass signature drives “for the Homeland” supporting the government in neighborhoods and workplaces) and opposition media (a voluntary online survey about political opinions of Cubans on the island and in the diaspora).

There is a climate of tense calm, and into this comes Amelia’s proposal, which many internet users immediately took as an aspiration to become the head of state.

Was the proposal of a new party surprising? Not really: in Cuba and its diaspora there have been for decades several dissident groups that identify themselves as opposition political parties. There’s nothing particularly unusual about a new one suddenly appearing, although like the others it would be considered illegal on the island.

Since 1961, Cuba has officially had a single party—the Communist Party, which the current Constitution defines as the “organized vanguard of the nation” and the “superior leading political force of society and the State.” No other parties are legally recognized. The State reserves the right to prosecute opposition groups for “criminal association” or other criminalized acts.

According to Cuban-American political scientist Jorge I. Domínguez, “the opposition is to a large extent outside the country… the ‘export’ of discontent has been government policy since 1960.” That is why many alternative parties emerge in the Cuban diaspora and then project influence inward.

This time, what was surprising was the way the proposal was launched, who it came from, the use of cyberspace as the main arena for debate, and Amelia’s quick clarification of the initiative in interviews with digital media just over 24 hours later, giving the........

© Havana Times