By Benjamin Noria
HAVANA TIMES – On December 9, 2023, I read an article that Cuban PhD in Economic Sciences Mauricio de Miranda published on Facebook. In this article, he says that the Ministry of Interior published Resolution 19/2023 in the Cuban Republic’s Official Gazette last Thursday. The Chief of the Ministry of Interior’s Criminal Investigation Directorate intends to use this to include individuals and organizations on a National List of People and Entities that have been subjected to criminal investigations, because of their involvement in the promotion, planning, organization, funding, support, or commission of terrorist acts unfolding in Cuba or in other countries.
Furthermore, he says that it will inform the President Supreme Court, the Public Prosecutor’s Office and the Ministry of Foreign Relations and Ministry of Justice. Miranda says he doesn’t understand how a Resolution from the Ministry of Interior can hold the Public Prosecutor’s Office and Courts accountable and give orders to these authorities to enforce the Resolution.
That said, this monster of a Resolution exists because there is no Rule of Law in Cuba, nor separation of powers like Montesquieu envisaged.
Rule of Law implies that every citizen and institution in a country, State or community is subject to the same laws, including lawmakers and leaders. Nobody in a country with Rule of Law is above the Law or exempt from paying for their crimes and will be held accountable for misgovernment during their term in office.
Rule of Law also means that everyone is subject to the law, including people who are lawmakers and judges, who are responsible for enforcing the Law. Every measure or action needs to be subject to a written law and State authorities are limited by a strict, preestablished legal framework that accepts its form and content. As a result, every decision from government bodies is subjected to procedures regulated by the Law and guided by their absolute respect for rights.
On the other hand, separation of powers – as coined by Montesquieu -, is a political principle in some forms of government, where the State’s legislative, executive, and judicial powers are exercised by different and independent government authorities. This is the main characteristic of a representative democracy.
Montesquieu argued that anyone with power is inclined to abuse this power; they will go as far as they can until they find a limit. To make sure they can’t abuse this power, you need to set things out in such a way so that power holds power. Thus, each of these three powers monitors the other, controlling and stopping excesses, to stop any of them overpowering the others, out of sheer ambition. This can be seen in the fusion of powers and separation of functions in some parliamentary systems, where the executive and legislative powers are joined together, with the legislative power appointing the executive.
Well, this is the reason why the Cuban Government is issuing this kind of resolution. In Cuba, there is an absolutist and totalitarian government. “Command and control” is what prevails here, not general consensus, or universal suffrage, or representative democracy. The Cuban State belongs to a dictatorship which is one of the longest-standing in Latin America: the Castro dynasty. They control mass media, the Army and the police.
Legislation like this will continue to appear because there aren’t any constitutional safeguards and abuse of power will continue in every decision-making process. The Cuban Government owns the island, it’s as simple as that.
Read more from Cuba here on Havana Times.
