Cuban Elections: On the Campaign Trail

Part Two: Candidate Interview

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I spoke with Valentin Valle Graupier, freshly-nominated by his zone as a candidate in the Municipal Elections to be held on 25 April. There are several fascinating features of the Cuban electoral process that provide a little insight into how this socialist society operates, and into how come the Cuban people want to hang onto it. Compare their salary with our MPs and their perks, for instance!! But first, I asked him if he was happy to have been nominated again.

VVG: Yes. The people have confidence in me so I have been proposed again, for a second mandate. April 25th will be the real moment of truth, when we have the direct vote, the definitive vote. It is like a wave breaking, dragging all my work along with it, and the 25th will be the real proof of it, if they elect me.

JWP: Do you make yourself available to your constituency every day, or for certain hours? How does it work?

VVG: Every Tuesday from 8pm I am available to the public for whatever problem or question they have, a declaration, whatever. It might go until 10.30 or midnight, depending. They are friends, we can talk until we find a solution, we can take what time we need, maybe 11pm, maybe midnight. We can talk about everything.

JWP: Do you receive a salary?

VVG: No, we don’t receive a salary, it’s a civic duty. There’s no money involved, no advertising, the simple truth is it can be practically anybody, a housewife, a worker, a young communist, or whoever, and it’s not paid because the country doesn’t need to do this.

JWP: Do you have to take vacations, then, to attend parliamentary business.

VVG: No, you always are given permission to take leave. If there are things at your work, for instance in my own work my team might have to go to another place like Santiago de Cuba or Guantanamo, and I might have to be away for 15 or 20 days, they can change the date of the meetings or my work can let me go back a day or two earlier, this is all more or less worked out by the Municipal Council.

JWP: How many years do you serve as a delegate?

VVG: Two and a half years in each mandate. I entered in the thirteenth period of government and if I am re-elected I will make it to the 15th year. Well, you can be promoted to be the president of the council, or to be a deputy in the Assembly, there are distinct types of work you can be fit for.

JWP: What is the relationship between municipal and provincial and national elections?

VVG: The Provincial elections are the same as the municipal, but the delegates are nominated by the deputies of the Municipal Assembly. They have bigger responsibilities, it is a different rank. We (municipal) are delegates at the base, we are the grass-roots. The President of the Council, the President of the Government, all come from the same base, and can go on to be deputies in the National Assembly, or president in the Municipal Assembly, or State Assembly, or be on the Council of Ministers.

JWP: So the municipal delegates elect the provincial ones and the provincial ones elect the national? Each level elects the level above?

VVG: Us at the base, the Municipal Assembly delegates, elect the President of the Municipal Council, and we also have the right to elect the President of the Municipal Assembly. Then, when we have a Municipal President we have an orientation and training about the things we need knowledge of, and then there is a process of nomination rising up vote by vote until we have decided on our candidates for the Provincial elections, and the population is informed of them, and they are notified through the press, who is the nomination for Santiago de Cuba, Havana Province, Marianao and so on. (This describes the pre-selection process of candidates for the provincial and national assemblies, but not the election process itself at those levels – this will be explained in Part 3. JWP)

JWP: So it is possible that one day you might appear in the National Assembly? (Cheers from constituents who have come to speak with their delegate – “I wish!” “If only!”)

VVG: Yes, it could happen. Why not? I have a friend who became a first secretary, who was a student with me, and worked with me, and he became First Secretary of the Municipio of the Plaza de la Revolucion. Other friends of mine have become members of the Council of State. If you want these things it is possible – but it is like a game of baseball – every pitch counts.

JWP. I noticed that there were a man and a woman candidate in your nomination process, and now there are one of each for the zone - is this a battle of the sexes?

VVG: (Laughs) No, there is never only one candidate. True, it is a battle, but it is not a battle for power, or to climb the ladder of success, no, no, no, none of this I listen to her and she listens to me. If she wins, good, I will pass on to her all my experience, well, and she agrees that my knowledge is just that of another voter, she has the right to take my advice or not, and if the people have confidence in her, good. It’s like everything. It is as if the zone is a mother with two children and one has certain talents or abilities and the other has other ones, both are worthy, but you can only buy one pair of shoes, you have to make a choice.

JWP: What is it you are trying to achieve, what is the most important thing facing your constituency?

VVG: We are trying to improve everyone’s welfare. Basically, in our area, there is a large aged population, and the buildings are also old. The main thing I want to do, and if I get the mandate, and have the opportunity and the health, I want to work with the Ministry of Construction to repair the housing...realistically there have to be the materials, but well, if the resources aren’t there nothing can be done, but that’s another thing, or a cyclone comes, various things put the brakes on what we can do, but we struggle on because in our area we are trying to improve the quality of life by repairing the buildings. The big problem here is failure to maintain the buildings, they have cracked, the bathrooms, the basins, the toilets have been in poor condition for some years, they haven’t been able to be painted, they need work, and work in this sense wasn’t able to be carried out because of the special period which was incredibly difficult, electricity problems meant factories couldn’t produce the necessary items, and if you can’t paint the outside of buildings they aren’t protected.

JWP: Are there, or have you had, disappointments in your work?

VVG: No, what happens is that there are not always solutions, delegates don’t always have the mechanisms to manage their own resources. They are not the administrators, nor do they direct the organisations. There is always something you can do, if what you need to do, what you have planned, isn’t available, if the voter has a problem you should be able to go to the relevant institution, for example the Department of Land, Housing, Construction, Materials. Whatever problem that comes, is for us. I agree with that approach, that approach means that whatever problem a voter has that they haven’t been able to resolve themself, the delegate has the responsibility to take it to the same place and solve it, whatever it is, food or whatever, because they have the knowledge and they know the established procedures within their area, and they know what is happening, if an item is not in the warehouse for example. Although they don’t manage it all, they know what is going on, and they can explain to the voter, Look, I went to the administrator and he told me that this is the situation.

JWP: So communication between the delegates and all the people in the area is very important? The people have a lot of patience?

VVG: Well, they are two things. There are some people who ask for things, and are never satisfied, but when something needs doing a Cuban acts, and in the end, when you go to the heart of it, Cubans are revolutionaries, and they understand how things work. What happens you can see on television, it is a type of journalism as well, a fight against imperialism for us, after 51 years of revolution we continue fighting although we have fifty thousand problems, it is true that we have problems, no potatoes in the house, transport, people who have to walk to work, and we look at all this - and then we watch the baseball! (laughs)

JWP: Do the people in your area have confidence in the political system?

VVG: Yes, people often are complaining but it is usually in a moment of annoyance. They say, “Look, I went to the delegate and he didn’t do anything, and he told me something a year ago and it never happened,” but what happens is I have to give an account of myself. I have to address whatever thing, if necessary I have to say I cannot resolve it and he says it’s the same old thing, it won’t be resolved, but I say never forget the people, it is not for any one person to achieve, it is bit by bit, because we all have to make it, it’s like a family and there is one plate of rice, everyone has to eat, each has a little. We have to plan, we are 11 million, we have to live together. The revolution is like a refrigerator, for example you go to your house now and open the door and there is fresh air, in the morning there is cold water, there is nothing else, no main course, it is the same with the State, it is doing fifty million things so you can each have at least a little, like a dish of chickpeas, for example, and I can get a loaf of bread for only five cents, and the people complain that the bread is rough, it doesn’t taste good, but at least they have bread, there are many in the world who don’t have bread to eat. And they have their health and they have their family doctor who attends them, and they have a hospital nearby, and they have solidarity amongst the people. If you are walking in the street and you trip over a stone, there will be forty people rush to help you, here, sit down, have a drink of water, would you like a softdrink? This is how the revolution, the system of government, works.

JWP: What do your constituents think about the attacks on Cuba by the European Parliament and others, and the criticisms of Cuba’s democratic system?

VVG: I have one thing to say about this. For over fifty years they have always been saying bad things about the revolution from outside, the same people who left at the beginning of the revolution. It is always the same thing, a deep hatred of the revolution and its two main leaders, Fidel Castro and Raul, and of all the other leaders. Actually I don’t this hatred is as big as they say it is out there, because when these people come back here after many years to visit, some have tears in their eyes because the reality is the people here show them something different from the hatred they have been fed in Miami and Europe, for example the Concert for Peace, they could listen to Olga Tañon and many musicians from other countries, and see the participation of the public here. They can’t express these emotions outside (in the United States) because they are afraid to. And now on the outside the contra-revolutionaries are taking up the case of a dissident like a banner, a so-called political prisoner here. But he was not a political prisoner, he was a crook, he did crooked things and he was caught, and he didn’t want to eat, and his family gave interviews outside, they all did, one saying everything was okay and another saying the opposite. I doubt it was on television but here I believe Cubans thought it was bad, they understood that although there was the other interview, the family said things against the revolution, that he was maltreated, that he was a martyr and a dissident, things that were not true. Inside the prison there are schools and universities and teachers going to give lessons and such things to help prisoners improve. The fact is there are delinquents with a low level of schooling and the state has tried by various methods and in a determined way to create ways for them to follow the right path, but if people refuse to follow and go their own way, this brings problems, and what can we do. This man had been born in the revolutionary era, and had all the advantages of it. Again it is like a family, there can be three children, two who take advantage of the opportunities they get and make a good life for themselves, and one who goes his own way. What can the parents do other than provide a good environment? He [Zapata Tamayo] knew nothing of the revolution, understood nothing of it even though it cared for him, however he never took the time to understand the revolution or its history. He was against the revolution, although he didn’t even know anything about capitalism because he never lived under it. He didn’t live because he went on a hunger strike. He was not a political prisoner, he was a common criminal who didn’t take up the opportunities the revolution and the government provided him.

So as Valentin continues his weekly meetings with his constituents and awaits election day, I will continue to talk to Cubans about their process. In Part 3 I interview a past president of an electoral council about the distinguishing characterics and theoretical basis of the Cuban electoral process, and the relationship between the various levels of government.

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Julie Webb-Pullman (click to view previous articles) is a New Zealand based freelance writer who has reported about - and on occasion from - Central America for Scoop since 2003. Send Feedback tojulie@scoop.co.nz

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