Meeting Cuba's youngest politician

Meeting Cuba's youngest politician
By Michael Voss
BBC News, Havana

As Cuba prepares to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Fidel Castro's
revolution on 1 January, most of those in power are the same people who
fought alongside him half a century ago.

Fidel's brother Raul Castro, 77, is now president and he chose
78-year-old Machado Ventura as his number two.

But there is a new generation of communists waiting in the wings.

The majority of deputies elected to the national assembly, or
parliament, earlier this year were born after the revolution.

The youngest, Liaena Hernandez, is just 18 years old. A petite young
woman with long black hair and an engaging smile, she has been a
political activist since her early teens.

We first met during a coffee break at the last national assembly meeting.

"Having young Cubans in parliament shows that the revolution continues.
It isn't just something from our history," she told me. Ms Hernandez
comes from Guantanamo province at the eastern end of the island.

Her father is in the army and she has just completed her voluntary
military service as a border guard in an all-female unit along the
controversial US naval base at Guantanamo Bay.

She was born just as Cuba's main benefactor, the Soviet Union, collapsed.

What followed was called the special period, a time of hunger and
hardship. The United States also tightened the trade embargo believing
it would hasten the collapse of communism.

This is the Cuba that Ms Hernandez grew up in.

Kissing babies

"I was born with the revolution. I've never known capitalism," she said.
"My earliest memories are of socialism, the special period and the US
blockade.

"As a family we couldn't have all the things we would have liked. For
years I had to wear the same pair of shoes to school, we just had to
keep mending them.

"But at least I had free health care and education. And as a nation,
everyone was willing to work together to get by and move forward."

Ms Hernandez invited the BBC to visit her on a constituency visit.

She represents Manuel Tames, a small rural community nestled in the
foothills of the Guantanamo's Sierra Cristal mountains.

There is little traffic on its dusty streets apart from horses and the
occasional tractor.

At the heart of the town is an ageing sugar mill with its giant
smokestack chimney. There is also a recently renovated health centre
with nurses and beds to spare.

But solving constituency needs is not the primary role of Cuban deputies.

"Our most important mission is to explain to the people the politics of
the state so that they understand what going on," she explained as we
arrived.

Some two dozen constituents had gathered to greet us outside of the
municipal offices.

Like all good politicians, Ms Hernandez moved comfortably amongst them,
kissing babies, joking and chatting with young and old.

Better roads and housing are amongst their concerns, but food appears
the number one priority.

Raul Castro has started to hand over unproductive state owned land to
private farmers and co-operatives in a bid to boost production and cut
food imports.

Farmers in Tames are waiting expectantly for the scheme to take off.

"Today is a different period from that of the revolution. There were
some things which were needed then which are not so good now, because
the context has changes," she said.

"We need to keep perfecting our economic system, that's where the
country is going."

'Perfeccionamento'

The government's priority is to try and make the state-run system work
more efficiently, rather than opening up to a free market, like the
Chinese have done.

You hear the word "perfeccionamento" - perfecting the system - used a
lot by officials.

There are also no signs of any political reforms. Opposition parties are
not allowed.

The national assembly only meets twice a year, a few days of committee
sessions followed by a single day's sitting. Critics call it a rubber
stamp parliament. The next session is scheduled for 27 December.

Candidates are also selected in advance. In the elections in January
there were 614 people standing for the same number of seats.

You do not have to be a member of the Communist Party to stand, but it
does help.

Ms Hernandez, though, believes that the system has served Cuba well.

"History has taught us that the Communist Party is the road that Cuba
needs to follow.

"We don't need to copy other countries' systems. We are satisfied with
our own and we are going to keep perfecting it."
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/americas/7784234.stm

Published: 2008/12/22 10:23:10 GMT