The New State Structure in Cuba: From Central Power to Municipal Power

Introduction

The new Constitution of the Republic of Cuba, approved in 2019, modified the political system in its institutional dimension, but left its core hard and untouched: the direction of the State and society is in the hands of the Communist Party of Cuba (PCC), now consecrated as unique, fidelista, and democratic.

The 1976 Constitution was in force until this last law of laws was approved, but it went through two modifications that changed the structure of political power. In 1992, constitutional reform introduced important changes in the economic foundations of the State by allowing a new form of property derived from foreign investment. It also incorporated “Martiano” as a moniker for the ideological base of the PCC, in search of a political opening that relaxed and expanded the consensus in favor of political power in the face of the crisis caused by the fall of the Socialist bloc and the start of the so-called Special Period.

Other changes related to power in the constitutional reform of 1992 were: the consecration of the secular State; religious freedom; the incorporation of the State of Emergency as an exceptional situation; the replacement of the old local executive bodies by the Administration Councils, with functions of government at the municipal and provincial level; and the birth of Popular Councils, which are considered the highest authority in their demarcations, and serve as a kind of intermediate link in the chain of power between the municipal delegates and the people.

An electoral law was derived from the 1992 reform, that same year, that allowed for direct, popular voting in the election of provincial delegates and deputies to the National Assembly of People’s Power. As of 1976, direct elections were only held at the municipal level, and provincial deputies and delegates came from the suffrage of the Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power.

The democratization that was experienced with the constitutional reform of 1992 was trapped in the preservation of the Candidacy Commissions that still survive, although their function has been modified. From 1992 to 2019, these commissions oversaw the creation of the lists of candidates for provinces and the nation at a municipal level. As of 2019, these commissions began to create lists for the candidacies of deputies to the National Assembly because the old Provincial Assemblies of People’s Power were dissolved and, in their place, governors, proposed by the President of the Republic, were elected by the Municipal Assemblies to preside over provincial governments.

Still in 2002, the 1976 Constitution was modified to include a third paragraph within Article 3, which already protected popular sovereignty and the people’s right of resistance against attempts to overthrow the Magna Carta. From that moment on, an intangibility clause was incorporated that prevents Cuba from abandoning its socialist path both economically and politically.

Local power in the 2019 Constitution

The Cuban State changed drastically in 2019. The political system continues to be dominated by the PCC and the Union of Young Communists (UJC), along with other social and mass organizations, but the State has changed its local and national structure.

At the municipal level, the Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power and the Popular Councils remain, though mayors have now been included. They are appointed by the Municipal Assemblies at the proposal of the Presidents of those bodies; they direct the Councils of Administration, the level of government closest to the people. The management positions within the Municipal Assemblies, such as the presidency and the secretariat, are internally elected by this body without popular participation.

The provincial government is now in the hands of a Governor and a Provincial Council. The governor presides over the Provincial Administration, and the position lasts five years. The Provincial Council is chaired by the governor and is also made up of the vice-governors, the presidents and vice-presidents of the municipal assemblies, and the mayors.

One of the most interesting changes brought by the 2019 Constitution has been the Fifth Section of Title II, Chapter VIII, called Guarantees to the Rights of Petition and Local Popular Participation, which allows, in article 200 of the law of Cuban laws, that the Municipal Assemblies of People’s Power convene popular consultations and respond to proposals by the population, as well as their complaints and requests. It also guarantees that citizens in the municipality can propose topics for discussion, ensures that adequate information is updated, and analyzes its own agreements for rights violations.

It must be noted that in the new Constitution, the Article 168 of Title VII: Territorial Organization of the State already considered municipalities autonomous and clarifies that they have their own judicial body and income, in addition to the allocations they receive from the Government of the Republic.

For its part, the province is only considered an intermediate level between the central and municipal structures, according to article 167 of the Constitution.

The New Territorial Development Policy

In 2020, the Council of Ministers approved a new Territorial Development Policy, which should serve as a framework for the laws and public policies that are approved at the municipal level from now on.

The policy of territorial development opens a path to an old desire of the Cuban population, of academic institutions, and of Cuban civil society—that of local development and municipal autonomy.

Municipal autonomy was presented as a state resolution in the 2019 Constitution, and local development is outlined in the Party Guidelines approved during its 6th and 7th Congresses.

This policy now emphasizes the endogenous possibilities of the territories and considers strategic the production of food and the exploitation of potentiality for each territory.

A territorial development is proposed in the context of economic crisis in which it is essential to move little by little from an importation economy to one of exportation.

The possibility of creating local development projects of municipal, provincial, and national interest is made more flexible.

It is a policy that involves communities, popular power, and above all citizens in the approval of participatory budgets and local development projects with various modes of financing.

In this policy, the union of various state and non-state subjects is promoted as a strategy to carry out these projects.

The policy encourages the employment of young people and women in these projects.

The policy revolves around sustainability and respect for the environment, in addition to the legality of any local development project.

The policy opens the door for local development projects to use, after fulfilling their tax responsibilities, up to 50 percent of what is earned to develop the work of the same project.

It is also a policy that allows productive, socio-cultural, and environmental local development projects.

It is a policy that encourages the use of the most advanced scientific knowledge that each territory may have and involves institutions for territorial training. It does not seek to stop the objective of local development with bureaucratization, but rather encourages it with more expeditious and informal mechanisms.

It is a policy that is clearly related to the economic measures announced on July 16, 2020.

This document is a evidence that those who have worked the most to achieve awareness of the need for local development over the last 20 years have been listened to, including and above all, institutions and research anchored in the same territories.

The approved policy opens the doors to the use of economic salary incentives for local development projects that until now were only allowed for prioritized sectors of the economy.

It seeks to develop territories that have long been entrenched in social and economic situations that do not allow for the well-being of the population.

Social welfare is precisely one of the fundamental objectives of this policy.

A training strategy for natural and legal persons is outlined by institutions involved in the design of this policy to prepare leaders and individuals interested in new local development projects.

It is considered a priority to give all legal security to the new local development projects created, to the point of recognizing the projects as having legitimate, legal backing.

The policy analyzed stands out with its flexible, tolerant, and updated language from the perspective of what has been achieved by Cuban civil society and what is established by the social sciences that work on issues related to territorial development.

It is committed to democratization—for popular participation, for considering the results of the assemblies of accountability, for economic flexibility—which is open to the participation of new subjects.

It leaves open a very interesting possibility: that the relationships between subjects involved in a project are established through association contracts.

In conclusion, it is a policy that, depending on its implementation within laws at a municipal level and others, can be an avenue that encourages new forms of work, community development and even democracy at the municipal level.

The Law of Functionality and Organization of Municipal Assemblies and Popular Councils

The Law of Functionality and Organization of Municipal Assemblies and Popular Councils was also approved in 2020. It deals with municipalities in general, as well as: municipal autonomy; the definition, integration, and constitution of Municipal Assemblies; the dismissal of principals within the assemblies from their fuctions. The Law also deals with the sessions of the Assemblies, the request for information from the president, as well as reports, voting, agreements, and ordinances. It deals with delegates, work commissions, and the rendering of accounts; it guarantees the rights of petition and citizen participation, popular consultation, attention to proposals, attention to complaints and requests from the population; it deals with the right of citizens to propose analyzing issues to the Municipal Assembly, for the population to be informed about decisions of general interest, for disclosure of analyses of official Agreements at the request of the population, and the revocation of decision-making bodies subordinate to the local Assembly.

The labor relations between Assemblies and Councils of the Administration are regulated with the provincial governments and the superior organs of the State.

In relation to the Popular Councils, Title II of the Law defines what a Popular Council is, its organization, its powers, popular participation, control over production and service entities, and the cessation of functions in office.

It is fundamental in this provision, Article 10, which regulates that the attributions and functions that the Constitution and the laws confer on the municipal organs of the People’s Power cannot be interfered with or assumed by the Provincial Government.

The Central Power Since 2019

The 2019 Constitution created a new State in Cuba with a series of organs that did not previously exist or did not have constitutional importance.

The Presidency and Vice Presidency of the Republic, the Prime Minister, and the National Electoral Council were introduced into the state structure. The General Comptroller of the Republic was introduced into the Magna Carta after years of the position already working within the State.

The Presidency of the Republic is a unipersonal body in Cuba which will be elected every five years and is extendable for a second term of equal time. The most important change in what it means for political power is the president’s character as Head of State and his or her indirect election by the deputies to the National Assembly of People’s Power.

From 1976 to 2019, the head of State was the President of the Council of State and Ministers, who headed the collegiate bodies of which he was a member.

Perhaps the most radical change that has been ushered by the new Cuban Constitution has been the separation of state functions from those of the government and party, which were homogenous until 2019.

On the other hand, the division of powers is still outside of constitutional order in Cuba, and this allows the courts of justice to be considered independent, but the Constitution itself provides that they can receive directives from the State.

The principles of organization and operation of the State continue to be those of a socialist democracy, but there has been a decline in the number of positions and bodies that are appointed or constituted through indirect elections.

The Prime Minister now directs the Council of Ministers, where the Government of the Republic still resides, but this figure becomes in fact and in law the Head of Government. He is appointed by the National Assembly on the proposal of the President of the Republic.

Final Thoughts

Political power in Cuba is torn between its legal form and its material manifestations as in any other place in the world. The 2019 Constitution establishes the socialist State of Law but does not conceptualize it. It also declares the principle of constitutional supremacy, but the Legislative Schedule approved shortly after the great text came into force has already been replaced by another, which has postponed, for example, the law that should create a judicial procedure for the defense of human rights.

The Cuban Constitution now mentions human rights for the first time since 1959, but it limits the right to create a political organization other than those that already exist in the country, and it does not foresee a specialized institution for the defense of individual and collective rights, nor a mechanism independent of Constitutional Control.

Popular sovereignty is at stake in the face of a bureaucracy little trained in dialogue, deliberation, or citizen control. Municipal autonomy seems to be the remaining path towards the construction of democracy in Cuba, and there are indications of movement within the State towards this sphere of political life in Cuba.

It is impossible to speak of power and its structure in Cuba without considering its indissoluble relationship with the vicissitudes in the relationship between the governments of the United States and that of the largest island in the Caribbean. Likewise, it is important to evaluate the new economic and political subjects that operate below the public political mesh and that tend to be decisive everywhere.

The last few months have shown that the Island was not as sleepy as it was thought to be and that the new generations have less admiration and are less trusting towards politics, which gives them the possibility to demand and resist, in addition to not having lived the years of splendor of the epic and mystical socialist revolution.

The 2019 Constitution is paradoxical in much of its content, and I also think there are nuances of the power that wrote it. In it there is popular sovereignty, human rights, a single party, preponderance of the state enterprise, private property, consideration of foreign investment, and the irreversible nature of socialism.

All that amalgamation of values that sometimes conflict is a sample of the struggle for political power in a Cuba less monolithic than what is believed beyond the sea that surrounds us.

Julio Antonio Fernández Estrada is a graduate of Law and History, a Doctor of Legal Sciences, and an Associate Professor. He has been a teacher since 1999 at the University of Havana, with experience in face-to-face and blended courses, and was a professor at the Faculty of Law from 1999 to 2008 and in the university branches from 2008 to 2012. He was a professor and researcher at the Center for Public Administration Studies of the UH from 2012 to 2016. He has published books, academic essays and articles on legal issues.

Illustration by Maikel Martínez Pupo. You can find him @MaikelStudio @maikelmartinezpupo.