VI.

Government

At the beginning of the 20th century, Cuba was an independent nation under U.S. protection. After the Spanish-American War (1898), the United States occupied Cuba, and Cuba established a government that met the approval of the United States. In 1902 the nation entered a period of unstable democratic government punctuated by two periods with dictators. After 1959 a socialist revolutionary regime emerged.

The Cuban Revolution brought down the republic on January 1, 1959, and by 1961 the government had been centralized under the Partido Comunista Cubano (PCC; Cuban Communist Party) and its prime minister, Fidel Castro. Until the 1970s, Cuba’s revolutionary government ran on informal legal agreements that ignored the provisions of the 1940 constitution. The executive branch initiated decree laws, which were laws drawn up and passed by the executive branch. They were implemented and enforced unless the legislative branch rejected them, which never happened.

In 1976 the Cuban government instituted a new constitution that formalized a communist system of government. Under the constitution, numerous committees, councils, and ministries control political sectors such as the Federation of Cuban Women, the Association of Small Farmers, the University Student Association, and the Labor Union. These political sectors provide citizens with input into government decisions and allow the government to quickly distribute information on official policies to the people. All units are answerable to the PCC and ultimately to Fidel Castro.

The revolution professed centralized democracy, meaning that popular participation occurs within designated mass organizations established and controlled by the state. The Communist leadership believes that traditional democracies in Latin America often become military dictatorships or become subject to government corruption, which renders their democratic institutions meaningless. In theory, the Cuban government avoids dictatorship and corruption by creating a strong, centralized political structure that makes every effort to incorporate the opinions of the people when making policy decisions. This, to their way of thinking, qualifies Cuba as a democracy and not a totalitarian government. However, Castro makes all major decisions, without popular referendums.

Political organization outside the government structure is strictly forbidden. The PCC and Fidel Castro control the press and discourage independent political gatherings. The degree of repression is difficult to ascertain because Cuba restricts outside access to prisons. Political executions occur but are rare. Cubans suppress their opinions because they fear that their dissenting views might be reported to the government. Without freedom of speech, Cubans have no opportunity to reach political consensus on issues or to choose opposition leaders. Only spontaneous eruptions of frustration display the tension within the Cuban population.

A.

Executive

Under the 1976 constitution, the president is the head of state. The president’s tenure in office is confirmed every five years by a vote of the National Assembly of People’s Power. The president is advised by a Council of Ministers composed of the executive officers of all the official government ministries; an Executive Council, made up of the president, first vice president, and five vice presidents; and the Council of State, made up of 30 members of the Cuban Communist Party. The Council of State has legislative powers when the National Assembly is in recess.

B.

The Cuban Communist Party

The Cuban Communist Party (PCC) is the ideological guide of the revolution. Its influence is felt in all political institutions, work units, and neighborhoods through its various agencies, such as the Labor Confederation, the Federation of Cuban Women, and the Committees for the Defense of the Revolution—neighborhood committees designed to coordinate public projects and ensure political conformity. High officials as well as common laborers may be members of the PCC. Young people can start as members of the Young Communist League and later advance into the PCC if they are selected and if they agree to join.

Fidel Castro holds the ultimate deciding power within the PCC, but the PCC contains an inner circle of members responsible for shaping and implementing government actions. The Politburo presides over the party and the Central Committee. The Politburo measures major policy decisions against Communist ideals and advises Castro, his ministers, and the legislative delegates about the ideological purity of their policies. The party’s Central Committee decides policy and collects information to make political decisions. Party members, chosen for their allegiance, hold other government offices, often as the presidents or directors of government agencies.

Every five years the PCC holds a congress at which the common people have the right to present their views. A tenet of Cuban justice is that the law is determined by popular consensus. Although a number of civil laws and the 1976 constitution were debated at local levels and ratified by referendum, in reality the central government makes the basic decisions on laws and policies.

C.

Legislature

The 1976 constitution instituted a concept known as the People’s Power construct, a structure designed to allow Cuban citizens greater participation in government policy-making decisions. The People’s Power consists of assemblies that administer government and pass laws. These assemblies exist at municipal, provincial, and national levels. Delegates are nominated and elected first at the municipal level. They need not be members of the PCC. However, the party must approve all candidates, and individuals may not run on a political platform. Instead, voters select their delegate from brief biographies and from personal acquaintance with the person. The 169 municipal assemblies allocate funds for maintenance of municipal facilities and hear cases involving household disputes and petty crime. Smaller communities with populations of 30,000 or more elect delegates to people’s councils. Members of the municipal assemblies and the people’s councils elect representatives to their provincial assemblies from their membership.

Each of Cuba’s 14 provinces has its own assembly. Provincial assemblies oversee transportation and communication systems throughout the island and recommend legislation regarding interstate crime and allocations of resources for development. From their own membership, provincial delegates nominate and elect representatives to the 601-member National Assembly of People’s Power. In 1992 the public approved a referendum calling for assembly members to be elected directly by the people. Only candidates belonging to the PCC are allowed to run.

The National Assembly votes on legislation presented by the PCC, and every four years it elects the president of the country. It occasionally debates the wisdom of legislation, but it has never failed to approve the central government’s proposals. When the National Assembly is in recess, which is most of the year, the Council of State has legislative powers.

Legislation can originate in various governmental branches. The president may decree laws that are in effect until they are accepted or rejected by the National Assembly. The Politburo and Central Committee can write legislation that is submitted to the National Assembly. And the courts can suggest legal reforms and interpretations to be enacted by the assembly.

D.

Mass Organizations

The Cuban political structure depends upon popular organizations that are not officially controlled by the PCC but are closely linked to it. Every citizen may belong to several of these organizations, which correspond to major social and economic sectors. For example, the Federation of Cuban Women seeks the membership of all eligible women over the age of 16 and deals with issues in the areas of health, child care, family relations, education, and loyalty to the revolution. Farmers may join the National Association of Small Farmers (ANAP), which introduces agricultural technology to farmers. It also tries to resolve problems relating to transporting produce to markets from cooperatives and private farms that are not a part of the state-run system.

Workers’ issues are represented to the government by the Confederation of Cuban Laborers (CTC), and the CTC conveys government decisions to workers. It oversees labor disputes between management and workers, as the right to strike was rescinded in the 1960s. The CTC works on behalf of the government by trying to maintain high levels of production. The Young Communist League indoctrinates Cuban youth with the ideals of Communism. The Committees for the Defense of the Revolution are neighborhood groups that call meetings to review the meaning of Fidel Castro’s speeches, provide neighborhood watch groups against crime, inform the neighborhood of civil and political activities, and report suspicious political behavior by local residents.

Within all of these groups, people can express their opinions and criticisms, although their views must follow revolutionary principles. Opinions are transmitted to central authorities who consider them as they make administrative decisions. One important legislative document brought before the public before its formal passage was the Family Code of 1975, which described the role of each member of a family. Massive public debate occurred and opinions were polled before the code became law. The numerous mass organizations also function as an official means of communication between the government and the people as they convey public policies to the citizenry.

E.

Judiciary

The Council of State and the Ministry of Justice administer the court system. Municipal and provincial courts and the national People’s Supreme Court hear cases and interpret the law. Cuban citizens receive legal counsel from law collectives that are organized from the municipal to the national levels.

Immediately following the revolution, some jurists predicted that the need for laws and courts would disappear as Cuba more nearly approached a perfect communist state. They envisioned that the state would dissolve and people would live together harmoniously, working for the good of the whole. Norms of social behavior, not laws, would govern their actions. By 1963 jurists abandoned this reasoning because they understood that the utopian state was a long time off. By 1970 new generations of lawyers were trained to serve as counsels for national and international agencies and as civil and criminal attorneys. Between 1970 and 1971, Cuba’s legal codes were restructured to reflect its socialist government. The government issued a number of law codes to formally institutionalize the economic, social, and legal changes Castro had made by decree following the revolution.

The courts at all levels employ formally trained judges, who have attended law school, and lay judges. Lay judges do not have formal instruction from law schools, but they do receive training before assuming their responsibilities. Lay judges compose 95 percent of all sitting judges in the country. They are elected to their posts and serve for a specified period. Lay judges must demonstrate enthusiasm for their work, and they must respect the seriousness of their responsibilities, have adequate education levels, and show evidence of good moral character. They are intended to bring a nontechnical view to court considerations, where they can note mitigating circumstances that lawyer judges might not consider. The lay judges represent community values, and their contribution to deciding cases is a means of democratizing the legal system.

Military tribunals sit on cases involving infractions by military personnel. These courts, as well as civil and criminal courts, are theoretically independent from political interference and guided by military and national laws, respectively.

Political prisoners are still in Cuban jails, and it is difficult to ascertain their offenses or to gain access to the legal decisions surrounding their cases. The government occasionally releases prisoners as part of international negotiations or when the prisoners have completed their sentences. Some former political prisoners remain in Cuba, where they are reabsorbed into daily life after serving their sentences. Others may be permitted to emigrate to another country at the end of their jail time. Arrests and releases may occur for purely ideological motives. Human rights groups such as Amnesty International and America’s Watch have criticized the Castro government for obstructing investigations into allegations of political arrests, mistreatment, and violations of international human rights agreements.

F.

Defense

The Cuban Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (Revolutionary Armed Forces, or FAR) has its roots in the revolutionary guerrilla troops who fought under Castro during the revolution in the late 1950s. When Castro came to power in 1959, he amassed the largest standing army in Latin America. He also created a militarized society in which all citizens were on alert against U.S. aggression. All social movements, such as the literacy brigades, were organized and led as though they were military offensives. The FAR, which draws recruits from throughout the population, is intended to fight invasions and wars in foreign lands. It may also be used to suppress insurrection. In peacetime, the FAR serves in national emergencies, such as cleanups after hurricanes and in harvesting the sugar fields when a crop is in danger.

The military is organized under the Ministerio de las Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias (Ministry of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, or MINFAR) and commanded by the president and vice president. The FAR and the PCC are linked through FAR membership in Communist Party organizations. Military officials hold office in the Central Committee and the Politburo, and they sit in the Council of Ministers. The military defends the country, trains young people for war and peace, helps Cubans develop useful skills and work habits, and maintains domestic security.

At home, the FAR defended Cuba in 1961 during the Bay of Pigs invasion, when U.S.-backed Cuban exiles unsuccessfully attempted to invade the island and topple the Castro government. The military also fought abroad for socialist and nationalist causes, and it supported nations who were trying to resist U.S. influence in their internal affairs. From 1960 to 1990 the FAR participated in international revolutionary campaigns in Latin America, Asia, and Africa, most notably in Angola from 1973 to 1990.

The government severely restricted military expenditures beginning in the 1990s and Cuba’s involvement in foreign wars ended. The government also allocated a smaller budget for the military, which fell from $2.2 billion in 1988 to $1,200 million in 2003. It also reduced the size of the military from 180,500 men and women to 49,000 in 2004.

Despite these military reductions, Cuba has worked to ensure a strong national defense. The government maintains constant preparedness for the People’s War, the government’s term since 1980 for an all-out military conflict between Cuba and the United States in which the people will bear arms in the defense of Cuba. Preparedness involves readiness not only in the regular army, but also among reservists, retired officers, and a 1.3-million-person militia. All of these military resources practice war games and train for war on a regular basis.

The Ministerio del Interior (known as MININT) is Cuba’s state agency responsible for internal security. Within MININT are a number of paramilitary, military, and intelligence branches: the Border Guard Troops; the National Revolutionary Police; the Special Troops, which are under Fidel Castro’s direct command; the Department of State Security Force, which conducts domestic intelligence; and the Department of General Intelligence, which operates international espionage. The MININT is responsible for top security and intelligence operations, and its members are assumed to be absolutely loyal to the revolutionary government. Only high-ranking officers are assigned to handle the secretive work characteristic of the MININT.

G.

International Relations

Since the revolution, Cuba has tried to export the ideals of the revolution throughout the world as a means of bringing down capitalism and opposing the U.S. model of constitutional government. United States policy has been directed toward ousting Communist control and bringing Cuba back under U.S. influence. The two nations have clashed in nearly every continent of the world, and Cuba’s survival often relied heavily on the support of the USSR. After the USSR collapsed and a Cuban economic crisis began, active Cuban support for international revolutionary causes ceased. Cuba’s leadership turned its attention to redesigning socialism to include some capitalist activity and trade with capitalist nations. To this end, Cuba formed new alliances with Latin American countries with which it previously had no relations. Trade agreements resulted with capitalist nations, such as Canada, France, Spain, Italy, and the Russian Federation.

The United States has continued to oppose Cuba, regardless of the changes in Cuba’s foreign policy over the past 25 years. In the late 1970s the United States refused to establish diplomatic relations unless Cuba withdrew its military from foreign countries, specifically Angola, released political prisoners, and paid compensation to former owners of nationalized properties. Cuba not only did not leave the foreign countries in which it was involved, but Castro committed troops in Nicaragua, where rebels were fighting to overthrow the dictatorship of Anastasio Somoza. This action brought an end to secret peace talks between Cuba and the United States. During the 1980s, U.S. president Ronald Reagan viewed Cuba as the source of Communist influence in the Western Hemisphere.

After 1991 the Cuban government offered compensation for seized property, released political prisoners, permitted U.S. news bureaus in Cuba, and stopped trying to export the ideals of the revolution. However, the United States has not reestablished relations with Cuba despite these concessions. The Congress of the United States, first through the Torricelli Law of 1991 and then in the Helms-Burton Law of 1996, demanded elections in Cuba similar to those in the United States and the removal of Castro and his associates. In 1996 U.S.-Cuban relations once again grew hostile after Cuban fighter planes shot down two civilian aircraft piloted by U.S.-based Cuban exiles, which convinced U.S. president Bill Clinton to sign the Helms-Burton Law.

In 1998, however, President Clinton responded to international condemnation of the U.S. economic blockade by relaxing restrictions on the admittance of food and medicine, and on money sent to Cuban citizens from individuals in the United States. Sports also served as the medium for cultural exchange when an arrangement worked out in 1998 through informal diplomatic channels allowed the Baltimore Orioles, a professional U.S. baseball team, and the Cuban All-Stars baseball team to play games in Baltimore, Maryland, and Havana.

Although relations between the Cuban and U.S. governments periodically thaw, citizens of both countries have experienced prohibitions against traveling to, communicating with, and knowing about the other country. But despite each government’s attempts to ignore or vilify the other, their diplomatic policies remained focused on one another as they battle for international approval.

Despite strained relations between the United States and Cuba, the United States maintains a naval base at Guantánamo Bay on Cuban territory. The United States obtained the base under a 1903 agreement between the two countries after the Spanish-American War. A 1934 treaty reaffirmed the U.S. right to lease the site from Cuba. After Fidel Castro came to power in 1959, he stopped cashing annual lease payments after the first check and declared the 1934 lease agreement illegal. The Guantánamo Bay base became a detention center for captured terrorist suspects and other prisoners following the September 11 attacks on the United States and the subsequent war on terror.

H.

International Organizations

Cuba is currently a member of the United Nations and the Nonaligned Movement.