The victory of “yes” in a referendum that expanded a series of civil rights in Cuba, made official this Monday (26), represented an advance in this specific field while helping to reinforce the contradictions of the island’s dictatorial regime. Pro-democracy activists call the result bittersweet news.
“If the Cuban regime was really interested in the rights of the LGBTQIA+ population, it would have established same-sex marriage without the need for a referendum. If it were interested in democracy, it would allow free elections to choose a president,” he tells Sheet Juan Pappier, from the Americas division of the NGO Human Rights Watch.
Approved with 66% of the votes, the so-called new Code of Families will replace a 1975 law, going into effect immediately. He defines marriage as a union “between two people”, opening the door to LGBTQIA+ marriage and the adoption of children by gay couples.
It will also allow the recognition of fathers and mothers in addition to the biological ones, as well as surrogacy —provided it is non-profit-, and will add other rights to children, the elderly and people with disabilities.
“The LGBT population has every right to celebrate, but this referendum does not change the dictatorial character of the regime an inch,” says Pappier. Historically, the Cuban regime has persecuted, imprisoned and driven into exile thousands of homosexuals.
Now, it has promoted an intense media campaign in favor of the new code, including clashing with the opposition of Catholics and Evangelicals – in a statement, the Episcopal Conference expressed its opposition to several points of the text, such as adoption by same-sex couples, assisted pregnancy and extended parenting.
When voting this Sunday (25), Cuban leader Miguel Díaz-Canel said that the new law “is a fair, necessary, up-to-date, modern norm that gives rights and guarantees to all people, to all diversities of families. , of people, of creeds”.
More than 8 million Cubans were expected to answer “yes” or “no” to a single question: “Do you agree with the Code of Families?”. Turnout was 74%.
“This may seem high for Western democracies, but the fact that more than 25% of voters did not turn out to vote is a punishment for the regime,” says independent journalist Yoani Sánchez. “It is a dictatorship, and not voting is a position that brings problems of political persecution, loss of jobs and can even lead to prison. Those who stayed at home acted valiantly in a position of confrontation.”
The main spokeswoman for the “yes” campaign, Mariela Castro, daughter of former dictator Raúl Castro, argues that the new legislation does not conflict with the regime’s view of equal marriage. “We are living a revolutionary process of maturing of the Cuban people and of the Revolution itself”, she said, in an interview with the Telesur channel.
The contradiction in the result, however, becomes even more evident when one takes into account that a new Penal Code comes into force in December, with very tough measures against freedom of demonstration and expression — for which there was no referendum or consultation. popular.
“What happened in Cuba last weekend was an operation to divert attention. The regime designed a strategy to make up for what it is actually doing, which is the hardening of the entire structure against dissent”, says journalist Jose Jassan, editor of the US-based digital newspaper El Toque.
The new Penal Code will punish with eight years in prison, for example, those who broadcast any type of independent and critical journalistic content through social networks. It will also increase control over surveillance of internet use, ban foreign funding to NGOs and civil society organizations, reduce the age of criminal responsibility and expand the cases in which actions against the regime can be classified as “terrorism”. Life imprisonment will apply to more categories of offenses — from 25 to 31 — and crimes considered “against the State” may be punishable by death.
“Our society is already quite repressed, and this text will increase the tools that allow political persecution and repression of citizen demonstrations. It is legislation against all Cubans”, says dissident activist Martha Beatriz Roque.
Policies of repression have greatly increased on the island since the historic protests of July 11, 2021. More than 1,400 protesters involved in the acts were arrested, many have not yet been tried and several received very high sentences – having taken to the streets that day or stimulated protests on social networks, he was jailed for up to 25 years.
The call for a similar movement in November ended up frustrated precisely in the midst of the regime’s intense siege.
That’s why dissident activist Manuel Cuesta Morúa sees the passage of the Family Code as “bittersweet news.”
“The regime manages to sell internationally the image that it is progressive, in favor of minorities, attentive to the so-called second-generation agendas, in a context in which first-generation agendas are brutally repressed”, he says. “The contradiction is such that a situation has been created in which a homosexual couple can go to get married in the morning, but in the afternoon be arrested for expressing an opinion.”
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