Thine is the Kingdom

Photo from: http://www.elnuevoherald.com

She doesn’t need castles, noble titles, estates, gigantic personal parcels nor grand properties. She is the daughter of a general, and not just any general, she is the daughter of the general-president of Cuba.

Mrs. Mariela Castro is the owner by inheritance of one of the greatest and most coveted treasures of any warlord: a country. Before 2006 she was the niece of the “historic dictator” and the daughter or the chief of the Cuban army and an outstanding female guerrilla from Santiago de Cuba. I imagine that as she was growing up she could always count on the magic hand that benefits “the anointed leaders of power” and their friends and family. She just had to desire something for her fairy godmother with the olive-green wand to come to her aid and solve her problems.

It was her uncle together with a group of guerrillas who made the revolution, who established this model that violates the rights and freedoms of Cubans, and her father is one of its stewards.

Mariela studied psychology. Possibly due to her lineage — which allows her to resolve with a telephone call material issues, of logistics, foreign travel, etc. — that made her choose to direct the National Sex Education Center. She was also selected this past December, purely by chance, to become a member of the Cuban parliament. Things of princesses, who dynastically demand the dignity of the office, some would say, more attention, authority and protocols than enjoyed so far in Cuba. She will also receive deferential treatment on each foreign trip she chooses to take after February — does anyone doubt it? — as a parliamentarian.

I would not invest my time to write about it, if it weren’t that I think that behind these “whims” is the arrogance of the heiress and machination of real power to “keep their hands in the State pie” and maintain their lifestyles through being the children of the traditional leaders. With the infanta Mariela in the national chamber of “approved” notables, they guaranteed “her election” — always unanimous, of course — to occupy the future vice-royalty of the country, which has been turned into a feudal fiefdom of one family that combines abuse of power, disrespect and contempt for the freedom of Cubans, with the “castrating” meaning of its own surname.

January 8 2013