Previously, a broad popular consultation process was developed, where 6,481,200 voters participated with 336,595 interventions in more than 79,000 meetings, which led to changes to 49.15% of the content of the project.

In general, the Family Code:

It seeks to recognize and protect vulnerable sectors of society.
There is an intentional treatment against discrimination and violence in the family space.
Recognizes the rights of older adults.
It incorporates the possibility of solidary gestation.
Transformation of a system of authority to one of responsibility in the relationship between mothers and fathers with their children.
It develops the right of all people to found a family and marry.
Family caregivers are named and recognized.

The new proposal of the family substantive text has as background Law No. 1289 of February 14, 1975, Family Code, modified in several of its precepts, essentially by Law No. 51, of July 15, 1985, of the Registry of Civil Status and Decree-Law No. 76 of January 20, 1984.

The project seeks to guarantee the rights of all people, regardless of the structure or form of organization they have opted for when forming a family, so that values ​​such as mutual respect, loyalty, solidarity, assistance reciprocal, as well as the affection between its members so that the family does not cease to be a moral entity, of a plural nature that has a single objective: to make those who compose it happy. It is about designing a normative body tailored to the Cuban society of these times.

At the end of the process, he told the press that it is going to be an intense day, which we arrived at as a result of a process that had to do with the construction of a fair, necessary, up-to-date, modern regulation that gives rights and guarantees to all people and diversities of families and creeds.

The president said that the Family Code has gone through a broad popular discussion process that has allowed a group of modifications. He recalled that they have worked with more than 25 versions of this legal norm.

“This Code started from popular debate, from a social need. In recent years our society has become more heterogeneous, Cuban families have changed and new types of relationships have appeared. There were debts with the treatment from legal norms to certain issues of inheritance and affection, and I think it was fair that they were taken into account at a time like this.

Díaz-Canel said that the regulations were also based on the study of situations and court cases, of the daily experiences of different types of families, of events that have occurred at a certain time, personal experiences. From these experiences —said the president— it is better understood why a Code was needed.

“The expectation is not that it will be a unanimous vote, but I do believe that it will be majority by our people,” said the president.

Likewise, he recognized that the Family Code includes issues that the people of Cuba still cannot understand.

“I think that in 62 years we have not overcome a criterion of patriarchy in some families, nor the understanding of diversity.”

We have respected the law and the opinion of all —said the first secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba—, but there are people who have not understood that the Code does not deny the family they defend, but rather gives guarantees to that type and to others.

In his words to the press, Díaz-Canel said that there is a whole platform against the Code that starts from the demonization and discredit of the Cuban Revolution.

“There are people who demonstrate against the Code, especially on social media, using vulgar and hateful language. If the Code said the opposite of what it says, those haters would be criticizing it too. It is not a problem of convictions, reasoning, rationality or feelings, there are simply people who adopt that position because they consider that if it is a Code within the Revolution, then it should not be valid”.

The president considered that the expressions towards the Code have to do with the understandings that people have in their own family or creed conditions.

“I believe that we have also assumed a position of courage by calling a referendum in the conditions that the country is going through: shortages, blackouts, shortages, with an important part of the economy paralyzed due to the intensification of the measures applied by President Trump in his mandate and maintained by the current administration of the United States.”

The first secretary of the PCC said that it has already been won, because regardless of whether the vote is yes or no, “we were all less selfish and looked more towards families and society.”

In this sense he added: “We all learned more about what our family and social realities were. Only the popular debate that has been generated and the way in which people have stopped to think about issues that at a given moment were not in their interest has already contributed to our society in terms of spirituality and feelings in relation to the family” .

Due to the depth and scope of the Family Code and the diversity of topics, the president considered that this is a monumental work. It has been subjected to two citizen participation processes, the Popular Consultation and the Referendum.

“That tells us that the country is on the way to continue expanding its military.

“That tells us that the country is on the way to continue expanding its democratic and participatory exercise, within the socialist Constitution. Each time the legal norms approved by the National Assembly of People’s Power are reached with more participation, seeking more criteria from the population”, commented the president.

In this regard, he stressed that all these laws and decree laws that are being prepared and approved, as well as public and government policies, are advised by groups of experts, so that all these regulations emerge from the outset with legal robustness, with a humanistic approach, towards socialism and from the treatment of integrality.

Miguel Díaz Canel Bermúdez, First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC) and President of the Republic, Photo: Abel Padrón Padilla/ Cubadebate.

“My expectation is that the majority of the population will vote yes. We have to get used to the fact that on such complex issues, where there is a diversity of criteria, there are people who can give a vote of punishment, because even if they have nothing against the Code, they assume a position determined by disgust because of the complex situation they are going through. . That is also legitimate,” said the head of state.

Likewise, he said that we cannot solve the economic problems that we have and then build a legal norm like this. “If a majority vote is yes, then it takes a tremendous effort because there is a group of constructions that support everything that the Code recognizes in terms of guarantees and rights.”

Most people understand that we are growing, assured Miguel Díaz-Canel.

“When we overcome the complex situations we are going to have a Code at the society level that helps and gives guarantees. I strongly believe in the participation and wisdom of our people. In addition, we have worked with transparency and loyalty. There was a constitutional mandate and we have fulfilled it in the times agreed by the National Assembly, regardless of the complex situation in the country.”

“The Code must be read, interpreted and assumed from and with the heart, always putting oneself in the place of others. The Code breaks taboos and prejudices. The most important thing is that we have grown as a society”, concluded the Cuban president.

(By: Thalía Fuentes Puebla y Abel Padrón Padilla/Cubadebate)

The new proposal of the family substantive text has as background Law No. 1289 of February 14, 1975, Family Code, modified in several of its precepts, essentially by Law No. 51, of July 15, 1985, of the Registry of Civil Status and Decree-Law No. 76 of January 20, 1984. Aware of the changes, needs, expectations and realities of the contemporary Cuban family, the 2019 Constitution of the Republic introduced a series of principles that have radically transformed the traditional criterion that of this important social group has prevailed for too long and of its rights as an institution, as well as those that correspond to each of its members, based on the value-principle of dignity that it enshrines as the essence of the rights of the person, which is nothing more than to say that the person has a value in itself, independent of any circumstance or internal or external quality; and it is particularly linked to the free development of the personality and the protection of family life without biases of inequality, all principles also enshrined in the constitutional text.

The recognition of the equality of all people before the law implies the same protection in the enjoyment of rights, freedoms and opportunities, without any discrimination due to any personal condition or circumstance that implies a distinction harmful to human dignity. Transferred to the family level, it means, among many manifestations, the right of all people to marry and found a family, to organize it in the way that their convictions dictate, to access all the institutions that are protected in the family space, to Balanced use of time that allows them to fully develop without domestic and care overloads and co-responsibility in the tasks of caring for the children and those that the rest of the members need in the different stages of their lives.

The right to free development of the personality protects the option that each person chooses the construction of their life project, that they decide the meaning of their own existence, according to their values, ideas, expectations and tastes. Taken to the level of the family, it supports the abolition of the requirement of heterosexuality to access figures protected by law such as marriage, de facto affective unions, adoption or motherhood and fatherhood through the use of assisted reproduction techniques; justifies the presence of divorces without requiring the need to air a reason for guilt, but rather that the will of the person is sufficient when they no longer wish to remain linked to their spouse, and the possibility of agreeing on the economic life of the couple, for only mention some examples of the concrete expression of that principle.

The Constitution dedicates the Third Chapter of Title V to the Families in its articles from 81 to 89. This location in the system of the First Law is not accidental nor is it meaningless; The protection of the family must be seen from the vision of protection of rights. The legal norm dedicated to its protection cannot be less. The approval of a Family Code in Cuba becomes an urgent need, felt and dreamed of by many based on regulations conceived with a deep ethical sense, with a vocation for plurality and inclusion, erected from affection, on the basis of respect to the difference and visibility of the most vulnerable sectors in the family order.

The project seeks to guarantee the rights of all people, regardless of the structure or form of organization they have opted for when forming a family, so that values ​​such as mutual respect, loyalty, solidarity, assistance reciprocal, as well as the affection between its members so that the family does not cease to be a moral entity, of a plural nature that has a single objective: make those who compose it happy. It is about designing a normative body tailored to the Cuban society of these times.

The text that will finally be taken to a referendum is divided into 11 titles, 474 articles, 5 transitory provisions and 44 final provisions, and its main aspects are consolidated, namely:

-Affection and solidarity are reinforced as the platforms and axes on which family relationships revolve. The project looks at families as a union of people linked by an affective, psychological, sentimental bond that are forced to a communion of life, so that they support each other. Thus, affection wins and is established as a legal value.

-There is an intentional treatment of discrimination and violence in the family space, with palpable legal effects in each circumstance in which it occurs and the possibility of its being denounced by any person who has knowledge of these facts.

-It seeks to recognize and protect the rights of vulnerable sectors of society that have often gone unnoticed in the eyes of the legislator; people who in the family space could be in some circumstance that places them in any situation of disadvantage and that usually concentrates on children and adolescents, people who are victims of violence, older adults, or people with disabilities. In the last two cases, a special title is dedicated to their rights to family life, autonomous and independent, free of violence, to choose a place of residence, to an accessible environment, to self-regulation of future protection, to participation and inclusion. social and family, family communication and support respectful of their preferences is an achievement of the new standard that is proposed.

-The rights of older adults are recognized, with special mention to grandfathers and grandmothers, who have transmitted values, traditions, customs, have forged family identity and have been architects of the work of caring for the younger generations, as an expression of high values, of loyalty, of respect for those who have preceded us. It is a debt that family law settles with them.

-Girls, boys and adolescents are treated as subjects of rights, with the possibility of exercising them, either by themselves or through their fathers, mothers and guardians, but in any case, based on respect for their individuality, to their progressive development, as they are people in formation, which does nothing more than respect the postulates of the Convention on the Rights of the Child that Cuba has signed. This seeks to promote decision-making, the assumption of responsibilities, the exercise of their rights and the demand for duties to the extent that they can form their own judgment.

-Kinship is transformed, firstly, because the sources of filiation are also transformed and secondly because kinship by affinity is strengthened. To the affiliation by consanguinity and by adoption, we add the one that has as its source the use of an assisted reproduction technique and the one that has its origin in socio-affectiveness. Kinship by affinity will not only depend on marriage but also on de facto affective unions and the legal regime of related mothers/fathers/grandparents/sons/daughters is structured. (stepmothers and stepfathers)

-The exercise of the freedom of family members to agree on different situations is allowed: mothers and fathers to agree on the distribution of custody and care of their sons and daughters, which includes the possibility of sharing them in harmony with the principles of co-responsibility and co-parenting; to the spouses to agree on the economic regime of their marriage; to the members of the affective de facto union to organize their coexistence; people to agree on the solution of family conflicts outside the judicial space through mediation or conciliation; mothers and fathers to reach agreements in the order of the surnames that their daughters and sons will bear.

-The right/duty of communication is reinforced, not only between mothers and fathers with their minor sons and daughters, but it also reaches the entire family group with a special look at the mechanisms of its guarantee in people with disabilities.

-There is a transition from a system of authority to a system of responsibility in the relationship between mothers and fathers towards their children, which, far from being weakened, enhances and reinforces the powers of legal representation and administration of their children’s assets, their rights and the duty to have them with them, take care of them, offer them love, emotional stability, educate them without violence, respect their own characteristics taking into account their growth and gradual development.

-The economic value of work in the home and greater economic and patrimonial protection are reinforced for those who have dedicated themselves to domestic and care work.
Figures of protection and friendly support are developed with the Convention on the Rights of the Child and the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities such as de facto guardians, foster care, guardianship only for minors or voluntary food.

-Care is recognized as a right and family caregivers are named and recognized, based on the protection of their rights when they fully or partially assume responsibility for the care of another person who is part of their family. It is about achieving a balance, on the one hand, the right that every person has to care and, on the other hand, that of someone who, renouncing many of their personal and professional projects, dedicates themselves to the care of their relatives.

-It is worth noting the projected reform, still superficial, of the Civil Code that also reacts to two fundamental elements, which are not the only ones:
The transformation of the legal regime of legal capacity regulated in the Civil Code, consistent with the paradigms of effective participation, social and family inclusion, physical and cognitive accessibility.
Concrete responses to this scourge of family violence.

Finally, the look at families must be in the plural, from their denomination and this has a symbolic value in the language of the family legislator, respecting the language used by the constituent and the various family realities.

In the drafting of the proposed text, the discourse has been taken care of, not only in a rational sense from the inclusive but from the use of terminology in some institutions of family law, appropriate to the social changes that are proposed as a transmitter of values. . That is why expressions such as “patria potestad” convey to us the representation of a society with a typical patriarchal family model, which has been replaced today by an idea of ​​a family in which equality prevails and emphasizes the responsibility with which the rights and duties established for the protection of the child must be exercised.

The important thing is to accompany the reference to their condition as a person and promote the replacement of these expressions, which aim more to emphasize immaturity or incapacity or diminution or deficiency, than in the potentiality of the person.

Likewise, views have been taken advantage of not only from Law but also from related sciences such as Psychology, Sociology, Medicine, Demography, Pedagogy, Statistics, among others, but not with a compassionate or merely tolerant vision of the new family models, but with a vocation for ecumenism that the constitutional plural exalts.

Between September 29 and October 15, 2021, the Specialized Consultation process was carried out and between the months of February and April of the current year, the Popular Consultation process was carried out. The results were announced by the National Electoral Council on May 15, 2022: more than 61.96% of the participants in the popular consultation expressed themselves in favor of the entire text.

The final text that will be submitted for the ratification of the Sovereign is the sum of all the criteria provided by specialists and by the people in the neighborhood assemblies and in the discussions in the workplaces, universities, and other student centers, analyzed exhaustively and punctually. and taken into account except those that cause a manifest inconsistency with the rights enshrined in the Constitution and the international treaties to which Cuba is a party.

These are, in essence, those that imply limiting the access of all people to all the institutions that the text protects with special emphasis on marriage, to constitute an affective de facto union, to the adoption or use of reproduction techniques assisted that violates the rights to found a family, whatever its form of organization and maternity and paternity; or to eliminate the positive notion of upbringing without violence, or the notion of the relationship of mothers and fathers with their children based on responsibility, or the references to the progressive autonomy of children and adolescents that contradicts the Convention of the Rights of the Child, its Observations and Recommendations.

A quick look at the main modifications incorporated allows us to summarize them in the following:

The WHEREAS are expanded as a text in which the reasons for which it is written are explained and the objectives it intends to achieve are explained based on the transformations that have occurred in the family and Cuban society that justify a change in the norm and exalt the role played by all in the conception of it.

The right to care and the effective protection that those who assume such a noble task deserve is expressly recognized, based on the recognition of care as the foundation for the development of humanity and the sustainability of societies, which implies its social valorization and its fair distribution. and allows promoting the implementation of positive action measures that guarantee the full enjoyment and its effective fulfillment and the real equality of opportunities and treatment.

The protection of children and adolescents is extended to exceptional and disaster situations: It is part of the action of the Cuban State that is only reinforced with the explicit recognition in the family norm. Recently, the guarantee of this right was verified as a result of the accident at the Hotel Saratoga in Havana; All the children had their health and education guaranteed immediately after the catastrophe.

The principle of the best interest of girls, boys and adolescents and their assessment guidelines are intertwined with the duties that assist them: their recognition as subjects of rights implies that they are also holders of duties. Especially respecting their relatives, participating and taking joint responsibility for the care of the home and the performance of domestic tasks according to their age and regardless of their gender.

Urgent protection against discrimination and violence is reinforced and the possibility of filing a complaint is extended to anyone who knows about these facts, beyond protection in the judicial sphere.

Clarity in the definition of solidarity gestation is improved, its distinction with the assumptions that generate multiparenthood, a term is established to start the process and the figure is further shielded.

Rules of personal content of the exercise of parental responsibility and those that link the consent of both holders of parental responsibility are outlined, for example, for departures from the national territory and its impact on the eventual abduction or retention of children and adolescents. .

The option of recording in a notarial deed the delegation of part of the exercise of parental responsibility and guardianship and care in favor of third parties is incorporated: if the agreements of the members of the families are respected and these do not undermine the interest above, the option of assuming these agreements by writing is enabled.

The Family Code is one of the most important norms for the social life of the nation. It breaks the traditional paradigms on which it has been based to build a more democratic Law, as well as supportive and responsible; extends its protective mantle to all people, by multiplying affections and adding rights.

It is, in short, a norm that responds to the principles and dictates of the Cuban Constitution of 2019 and, like it, is inclusive, pluralistic, insofar as it strengthens the meaning and search for fulfillment of the person, of their happiness. , from the recognition of dignity as the supreme value and foundation of the rest of the constitutional rights recognized in it.

(By: Dr. Ana María Álvarez Tabío. Posted in: Think Right)

The intention of the draft Code is to reflect the priority Cuba gives to the healthy development of minors and the care of their physical and psychological integrity, within and outside the family environment.

Nonetheless, with the introduction of specific rights for children and teenagers in the draft Code, a common question emerged among parents and grandparents: We will we lose authority over our children?

The answer is no. Although the law is explicit in determining the scope of the rights of children and adolescents in the family environment without invalidating the duties and rights of their parents, Granma looks into the arguments that justify the urgency of enforcing what is proposed in the law, based on existing legal experience in Cuba.

GROWING UP WITH GREATER LEGAL PROTECTION

Yamile González Cabrales, president of the Civil, Administrative and Labor Chamber of the People’s Provincial Court in the province of Granma, and vice-president for Civil and Family Law at the headquarters of the provincial branch of the National Union of Jurists of Cuba, explains that the legal treatment of matters involving children and teenagers are usually complex and very sensitive, so it is essential to have an updated legal framework that contemplates their duties and rights.

In this sense, the Families Code project becomes a starting point to broaden the affective and educational horizons of families and to strengthen communication between adults and minors.
-Based on this premise, how is the family impacted by the incorporation of the concept of the child’s best interest?
-This term is enshrined in the International Convention on the Rights of the Child, which dates back to 1989 and to which Cuba is a signatory. This norm shapes all provisions that relate to minors because it includes a procedural channel in which the premise is to protect their rights.

That is to say, when a decision is made in a court of law, the safeguarding, protection and recognition of the child’s rights will always be taken into account.

However, it must be considered that the Family Code currently in effect in Cuba dates from 1975, and, although public policies have been established and implemented since then to protect the rights of children, normatively, the best interest of the child was not recognized until the approval of the Constitution of the Republic in 2019.

We believe this principle represents a turning point in the Cuban legal framework, since it seeks a paradigm change in our conception of the child, ending the view of children as only objects of protection to recognize them as subjects of rights.

In fact, in the legal norm in force, communication with minors is conceived only on the basis of the interests of adults. For example, there may be the case of a father who wishes to communicate with his child and the mother of the minor limits him, but neither of them is actually listening to what the child wants.”

Given this reality, and in my experience as a judge, I have not seen a process aimed at establishing obligations for an absent parent to have greater participation in the child’s life based on their needs, such as having their presence at school meetings, in their extracurricular activities or in any other area of their life.

In short, the child is now considered as a person with rights and duties, which will be acquired as the child grows and his or her intellectual capacity matures”.

-Likewise, a controversial issue that the Code has incorporated is the right of minors to be heard in accordance with their capacity and progressive autonomy. Does this concept mean a change in the traditional model of education and formation within Cuban homes?

-It has been established, from the legal point of view, that it is necessary to reach legal adulthood, 18 years of age, to fully enjoy all rights and be capable of exercising them; but this is not how the body works biologically.

Progressive autonomy establishes that the child acquires legal capacity just like they do with the rest of their capacities, as they mature. A six-year-old child will never be evaluated the same way as a 13-year-old teenager.

It should also be clarified that the degree of intellectual maturity may be different in children of the same age. Hence, it must be personalized for each child. And this does not mean in any way that children are going to do whatever they want, or that parents will have their authority limited.

There are circumstances that demonstrate this, such as the case of a child who does not want to undergo medical treatment out of fear, and then the parental responsibility to care for the child prevails because the right to life is paramount.

In any case, it is a matter of legitimizing the active participation of children in the family dynamics. They now have the recognized right to be heard, and to have their opinions taken into consideration. And parents have additional responsibilities.

-This parental responsibility includes the duty to ensure the safety of children in the digital environment, is it a step forward that the Code recognizes the access of minors to virtual platforms as a right?

-First of all, it would be naive to think that it is possible to conceive the growth of children and adolescents apart from the digital world, given the development of information and communication technologies. It is not a conception exclusive to Cuba, but rather an obvious reality in most countries, so access to digital platforms must be a right of minors.

But just as in any other environment, children’s access to the Internet must take into consideration content and proper use of the web, based on their progressive autonomy and under the guidance of parents and teachers.

Today we are facing many unpleasant situations on the Internet that have no legal solution. In this regard, the draft Families Code provides some legal answers. However, the updated and recently approved Penal Code states the procedures for negligent conducts associated with criminal figures on the internet.

-If you had to define the greatest contribution of the new Families Code to the integral development of children and teenagers, what would it be?

-Unfortunately, minors are a vulnerable group who can be put by adults -whether parents, relatives or acquaintances- in situations where they could be the victim. The fact their rights are legally guaranteed makes possible to settle any dispute where they could be involved in a more agile way, while protecting them before, during and after the process.

Even if parents are not present, minors will be able to count on the family ombudsman’s office. In other words, when parents do not respond to the interests of the child, the child will have the opportunity to seek protection and defense of their rights.

In general terms, we are seeing a norm that reflects what is really happening in our society. It does not intend to change anything inside the home; in any case, it seeks to ensure that we can all be represented, especially boys and girls, whose rights are as sacred as our children are.”

(Taken from Granma)

El dilema social asks itself , on Netflix and in The Cuban Package

A documentary that Netflix premiered last week can now be found on ElPackage , the off-line download service that operates informally in Cuba. The other side of the United States blockade of the island is the circulation, without customs or copyright payments, of all kinds of series, movies, video games and computer programs that are produced within 90 miles of our territory.

There is no exchange of goods between the two countries, but neither is it possible to control the underground and totally deregulated market for “cultural products” that are packaged on external hard drives and flash drives, or that come directly to us via the Internet. Sometimes for the better and sometimes for the worse. When talking about the US blockade, it is rarely repaired in its looser side: what lets you take almost everything that comes through digital tracks, thanks to what the French philosopher Eric Sadin has called “the silicolonization of the world.” .

Even for Cuba, under siege for too long, wars are not what they used to be. We are facing adversaries who have no territory, no borders, no diplomats, no seat on the Security Council, and no interest to negotiate. Social media multiplies by zero the laws of sovereign states that it suffocates without suffering repercussions. Like an impenetrable layer of latex, that empire mediates between us and is responsible for the polarization, extremism and many other dysfunctions that contemporary society experiences.

This is the subject of the documentary The Social Dilemma , by American director Jeff Orlowski, which is already circulating on the island’s digital mezzanines. Narrated by top developers from Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, and other platforms, who defected from those companies for ethical reasons, it’s the most lucid, succinct, and deeply terrifying analysis of the impact of so-called social media that I’ve ever seen.

It is surprising, because it is the brains of these platforms that speak up to their elbows of the destructive capacity of these companies, but not because we were no longer aware of it. We Cubans are experiencing it firsthand in two ways: the polarization and derision that permeates social networks, permeable to Trumpian measles from coordinated groups of Cubans living in Miami, and the conspiracy theories that flood Latino communities in Florida. Both Democrats and Republicans compete there for the medal for the most anti-communist party and for denigrating the symbols of the Cuban Revolution, on the eve of an election in which lies have reached a savage dimension, according to the digital newspaper Politico .

Disinformation, Politico adds , reaches “a saturation level that threatens to shape the outcome in the most disputed state in the country” in the current electoral contest. “I’ve never seen this level of misinformation, conspiracy theories and lies,” says Evelyn Pérez-Verdia, a Democratic digital strategist, who has studied WhatsApp groups.

The misinformation that is shared in chats and on YouTube, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook goes beyond hyperbolic rhetoric. Conspiracy theories, especially around QAnon, who posits that Trump is fighting a global power of satanic pedophiles, jump from the networks to the posters and t-shirts of Trump supporters that every week mobilize in Florida.

Last Friday, the main Spanish-language newspaper in that state, El Nuevo Herald , was forced to withdraw its supplement “Libre”, which attacked the Black Lives Matter movement with racist and anti-Semitic opinions. A poisonous youtuber, self-proclaimed leader of the People’s Party in Miami and Trump’s main spokesman in the Cuban-American community, has announced, among other succulent lies, that a wave of immigration from the island will ensue before November 3. Their live broadcasts usually have thousands of enthusiastic viewers daily.

In an article in which it warns that the Trump 2020 campaign is preparing to invest a billion dollars for Internet advertisements, The Atlantic magazine acknowledges that a vast coalition of partisan media, external political groups, has been mobilized in these elections and private companies, ready to “undertake what could be the most extensive disinformation campaign in history. Whether or not he succeeds in the reelection of the President, the destruction he will leave behind will be irreparable, and not just for the United States. ”

How did we get here? When and who unleashed the demons that are now on the loose? What are we going to do? Those are the main questions that El dilema social asks itself , on Netflix and in The Cuban Package . It remains to be seen whether the dust that the documentary has raised will help de-silicolonization. Hopefully.

(By Rosa Miriam Elizalde/Taken from La Jornada)

This was noted by historian José Sánchez Guerra, during the “Theoretical Encounter: 120 Years of the Yankee Military Presence in Guantánamo,” held at the University of Medical Sciences of this territory; as part of which professors, social science researchers and university students discussed the damages caused as a result of the United States’ oldest overseas military base.

Sánchez added that Guantánamo residents have responded with a spirit of resistance accumulated over 120 years, which forms part of their identity.

The event saw the book launch of Guantánamo and American Empire: The Humanities Respond by its author, U.S. writer and professor Don. E. Walicek, who currently lives in Puerto Rico, and the editor Jessica Adams.

The text contains historiographical elements, interviews and academic essays that, from a Caribbean humanistic and cultural perspective, condemn the arbitrary methods of detention and torture employed at the prison located in the illegal military base.

Don. E. Walicek explained that the book is the result of four years of research, and also attempts to show the world that the province of Guantánamo is much more than just the naval base. At the same time, it highlights the international condemnation of the illegal occupation, as well as the just demand of the Cuban people for its return to the island.

Researcher Mario Montero Campello, meanwhile, referred to the impact of the military base on the surrounding environment. The United States occupies the deepest areas of the Bay of Caimanera, affecting also the flora and fauna of the area, as a result of continuous constructive extensions, and the systematic dumping of waste, which pollutes the surrounding area.

(Granma)

The Cuban expert described this achievement as one of the sector’s strengths, highlighting the importance of science, technology and innovation (CTI) toward overcoming the country’s challenges and promoting development.

In this sense, he explained that the CTI system includes some 15,993 PhD holders (355 with a combined degree); 25,000 university professors; 6,839 researchers; 30 specialist universities and thousands of technicians.

Among national priorities for the sector he mentioned food production for both animals and humans; the development of renewable energy; adaptation to climate change; and the computerization of Cuban society.

Velázquez Pérez also highlighted the sustainable use of natural resources, Cuban society, economy and international relations; urban and provincial planning; biotechnology; pharmaceutical production; and research within the fields of exact and natural sciences; as well as nanotechnology.

The International Congress, organized by the Ministry of Education and Central Institute of Pedagogical Sciences, is being held June 11-15 under the maxim: Investigate and Innovate: The 2030 Agenda, with around 300 participants, including 100 international guests from seven countries.

The event aims to contribute to promoting exchanges and sharing scientific results and good practices in the daily work of educational professionals.

(Cubadebate)

Teresa Amarelle Boué, Secretary General of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), told Granma that the Meeting will address issues such as the implementation of gender equality plans under the framework of the 2030 Agenda and sustainable development goals.

The first Conference was held in 1977, and at that time the FMC was led by Vilma Espín. “Cuba had made progress in equal gender rights, opportunities and possibilities, so the country offered to host the inaugural conference,” Amarelle explained.

In this regard, she added that the Meeting will be dedicated to Vilma, the first president of the ECLAC Regional Conference on Women, and to the historic leader of the Revolution Fidel Castro Ruz, who always promoted the crucial role of Cuban women.

Amarelle explained that these meetings of presiding officers, including 19 member countries, and currently chaired by Uruguay, are held between each conference. The next ECLAC Regional Conference on Women will be held in Chile in 2019.

The FMC Secretary General also noted that Cuba is a reference in the regional context, due to the public policies promoted, with the active participation of the FMC, as a national mechanism for the advancement of women.

According to its website, “The Presiding Officers of the Regional Conference on Women, which is one of ECLAC’s nine subsidiary bodies, is made up of Uruguay, which holds the presidency, as well as Argentina, Antigua and Barbuda, Brazil, Chile, Costa Rica, Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Panama, Puerto Rico, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Saint Lucia and Suriname.”

(Granma)

Yesterday March 8, on International Women’s Day, the eternal president of the Federation of Cuban Women (FMC), Vilma Espín Guillois, was honored for her decisive contribution to women’s equality.

The tribute to the heroine of the guerilla and underground struggles took place at the site where her ashes rest in the monumental mausoleum to the heroes and martyrs of the Frank País García Second Eastern Front, founded by Comandante Raúl Castro Ruz, where she joined the armed struggle and fought until the Revolution triumphed in 1959.

After the traditional march from the town of Mayarí Arriba to the site, two exemplary female officers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces placed a floral wreath at her grave, in the name of the Cuban people.

Vilma’s legacy was recalled by Sunildes Montes de Oca Tito, a member of the FMC’s provincial secretariat, while poems and songs were performed by local artists.

Comandante en Jefe Fidel Castro, a staunch defender of women’s rights, was also honored on the occasion of International Women’s Day, in an event at Santa Ifigenia Cemetery, during which a group of young women received their FMC membership cards.

The placement of a floral wreath at José Martí’s mausoleum in the name of Cuban women, and flowers for Fidel, completed the memorable day. Participating were members of the Party Central Committee, provincial government and Party leaders, Beatriz Jhonson Urrutia and Lázaro Expósito Canto, respectively.

(Granma)

“In Cuba, the struggle for the equality and advancement of women is not only a matter of defending the legitimate rights of a sector of the population, but a condition for the development, with social justice, of the entire society,” Amarelle added, offering several arguments regarding the real empowerment that Cuban women have achieved in the Revolution: women constitute 48% of employees in state institutions, exceed 70% of the workforce in sectors such as education, health and the administration of justice, and make up almost half of the Parliament, with Cuba placing third among the countries of the world with greatest women’s representation.

Amarelle highlighted the recent measures to benefit women workers and recalled that the achievements of Cuban women within the Revolution are still the cause of mobilization and struggle for the majority of women across the world, to whom she reaffirmed Cuba’s solidarity.

The national anthem, “La Bayamesa”, was played by a female string quintet, children read out poems from José Martí’s Ismaelillo, various dances were performed and Fatima Patterson, National Theater Prize winner, read poetry, all providing for an artistic gala that emphasized the significance of Cuban women.

The event, also presided by Olga Lidia Tapia Iglesias, a member of the Party Central Committee Secretariat, alongside the leading political and governmental authorities of Granma, also saw the host province presented with an award for its vanguard efforts in terms of the work of the FMC in the territory, while the territories of Ciego de Ávila, Sancti Spíritus, Matanzas and the Isle of Youth were recognized as outstanding.

(Granma)