Elián's father likely to join freshman class in parliament

www.orlandosentinel.com Published January 20, 2003

A mild-mannered waiter thrust into the international spotlight during the seven-month custody battle for his son Elián, Juan Miguel González sought a seat in Cuba's parliament in Sunday's elections.

As one of 609 candidates for as many seats in the National Assembly, his success is almost guaranteed.

Unlike in the United States, there are no stump speeches or campaign fund-raisers here. Elections to the National Assembly come every five years and, the government says, voter turnout hovers around 97 percent, although the law does not require Cubans to cast ballots. The only way González could lose is by attracting less than 50 percent of the vote, an unlikely circumstance.

González will be among 60 percent of the candidates to sit in the assembly for the first time. The 300 freshmen include union leaders, schoolteachers, athletes, doctors and agricultural workers nominated from a pool of 14,000 municipal delegates.

But there are also plenty of familiar faces. The list of candidates constitutes a who's who of Cuban society, including Minister of Culture Abel Prieto, Central Bank President Francisco Soberón, Havana's city historian Eusebio Leal, troubadour Silvio Rodríguez, Vice President Carlos Lage, Interior Minister Abelardo Colomé Ibarra and the three Castro brothers: Fidel, Defense Minister Raúl and oldest brother, Ramón.

Voters can "show their disapproval by turning in a blank ballot or not voting for some of the candidates," said Miguel Alvarez, adviser to the president of the National Assembly, Ricardo Alarcón. Though most candidates belong to the Communist Party, membership is not mandatory.

Several opposition groups said they would boycott the elections, and one dissident coalition planned to monitor voter turnout to prevent the government from inflating the numbers.

"It is important that the dissident is there, whether the government wants him there or not," said Martha Beatriz Roque, a former political prisoner and head of the Assembly to Promote Civil Society.

Dissident leader Oswaldo Payá, who recently received the European Union's highest human-rights award, called the elections illegitimate.

"In Cuba, candidates are put forth by organizations controlled by the government," Payá told reporters while in Mexico City. "There is an environment of disrespect for [civil] rights. This is neither constitutional nor legitimate."

Payá led a referendum initiative for widespread changes to Cuba's one-party system. Presented last May, the Varela Project has been ignored by the National Assembly.

The National Assembly meets at least twice a year, and the biggest issue it could face is the economy. Cuba's economic outlook at the beginning of 2003 is anything but rosy, largely because of a drop in tourism.

The island's economy last year grew only 1.1 percent compared with 3 percent in 2001 and 6 percent in 2000. Ongoing work stoppages in Venezuela, which supplies one-third of the island's oil, and an impending U.S.-led war with Iraq threaten to send Cuba into an energy crisis.

At the Alaska Laundromat, one of Old Havana's voting sites, candidates' biographies and photos were taped to the door.

Nearby, small Cuban flags were pasted to the wall with slogans exhorting residents to "vote for the honor of the country, vote for our ideals and values!"

Laundromat worker Isabel Collazo said she planned to vote for all the candidates on her ballot.

"They're people who've made an effort for their homeland and the revolution," said Collazo, 52. "I read the biographies, and looked at their trajectories as revolutionaries and all the work they've done."

Information from wire services was used in this report. Vanessa Bauzá is Havana bureau chief for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. She can be reached at vmbauza1@yahoo.com.