Cuba's old Communists must keep active

Cuba's old Communists must keep active
Posted on Thu, Apr. 24, 2008
By WILFREDO CANCIO ISLA
El Nuevo Herald

In an effort to limit the losses within its ranks, Cuba's Communist
Party of Cuba has called on members near retirement not to shirk
party-related tasks and cautioned that ``disease is not a reason for
deactivation.''

Party militants may not quit even if they have senile dementia,
according to an internal document issued in January by the Organization
Department of the party's ruling Central Committee.

The document recognizes that in recent years there has been ``an
incipient tendency to an increase in applications for deactivation from
workers in different sectors, close to retirement.''

The applications ``are justified by health or family problems, and
arguments are also raised about the lack of physical and mental
conditions to deal with the complex tasks tackled ... (by party cells)
which [the applicants] do not wish to join," says the document obtained
by El Nuevo Herald.

The document was included in the bulletin ''Internal information for the
nuclei,'' which is distributed to militants for the purpose of discussion.

When the document was issued, the Organization Department was led by the
now First Vice President of the Council of State, José Ramón Machado
Ventura, who was elected to the second-highest post in the Cuban
government on Feb. 24. Machado Ventura is 77 years old.

The document proposes taking advantage of the retired militants to
promote the work of mass organizations, such as the Committees for the
Defense of the Revolution, as well as the police and other government
agencies.

The document concludes: ``It is necessary to reiterate that disease is
not a cause for deactivation, so long as it is not an ailment that
deprives the militant of his mental faculties, which does not include
senile dementia.''

Medical specialists in Miami consider this paragraph to be contradictory
since senile dementia constitutes a loss of the person's mental faculties.

``From the medical point of view, this is a totally irrational
statement," said Dr. Lino B. Fernández, a specialist in psychiatry who
lives in Miami.

In Cuba, party members interviewed by El Nuevo Herald from Miami said
that the communiqué contradicts the very statutes of the party, which in
Article 14 contemplates ``the deactivation of a militant when he
requests it, or if he considers that he is in no condition or has no
possibility to remain in the party.''

In the aftermath of the document's distribution among the party cells,
known in Cuba as nuclei, the official daily Granma on Feb. 5 published
an article that, in unusually critical language, exhorted party members
to eliminate ''lies'' and admitted that some militants ``have a weakened
ethical verticality.''

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/americas/cuba/story/508307.html