From our Bureau of Tense Awkward Moments at Fake Parliaments in Totalitarian Latrine American Hellholes
Carlos Miguel Pérez, a young die-hard communist Castronoid who has profited from being an oligarch and a “self-employed” entrepreneur seemed to speak in favor of greater economic freedom a few days ago at Castrogonia’s fake parliament, officially known as the National Assembly.
His statements –which were being televised live — caused a sudden interruption of the live feed, but not before the cameras caught some of his fellow communists looking perplexed and disturbed.
No word yet on what punishments might be meted out to this heretic, if any. Will he lose his seat in the National Assembly as well as his membership in the Communist Party? Will he lose his semi-private business? Will he be imprisoned?
One must ask: why would Pérez dare to risk so much ? As a life-long member of Castrogonia’s Communist Party and as someone who profited economically from his elevated status, he surely must have known that calling for a free market economy was tantamount to denying the divinity of Fidel, which is the same as committing suicide.
Was he really challenging communist orthodoxy? Or could it be that he was surreptitiously trying to call attention to price-gouging by cuentapropistas in order to shut down his competitors in the so-called “self-employed” sector? Time will tell. Communists can be very sneaky, you know, especially because the most fervent among them are always driven by self-interest . . .
Via The Brunswick News
In an unprecedented moment that underlines Cuba’s spiraling economic crisis, a member of the island’s National Assembly who is also the only business owner on the legislature defended free markets during a session in which he also criticized the island’s socialist economic model.
Pointing out the inability of the centrally planned economy to provide enough food for all Cubans, Carlos Miguel Pérez said a state worker’s monthly salary is so low it’s worth about the price of a piece of Gouda cheese.
The remarkably candid address came during a session of the assembly last week in which Cuba’s dismal economy, its leaders’ tenacious defense of a failed system and the divisions at the top all spilled out in public.
“There is no Gouda cheese that costs less than what a state worker is paid in a month,” about 4,000 Cuban pesos ($20), said Pérez, who added that at age 37 he does not “remember a moment in which the salary in Cuba played the role of satisfying 100 percent the needs of our people.”
His words to his fellow assembly members marked a striking moment in the assembly, not only because they happened in a highly controlled environment but also because he is the first small business owner to have a seat on the island’s legislature.
A state television channel that was carrying the session live cut away abruptly to a newscast while Pérez was speaking The TV anchors later said the newscast had been planned for that time, and added the station would replay Pérez’s comments in full because of audience “interest.”
The video shows Perez’s assembly colleagues sitting next to him, at times nodding at his comments but mostly trying to look straight ahead or listening with a blank expression.
Like other members of the National Assembly, who are carefully vetted to ensure loyalty to the Communist Party and the country’s leaders, Pérez, a founder and CEO of the software developing company Dofleini, is himself a party member. His company has benefited from his relationship with state agencies and officials, becoming the first authorized “PYME” — Cuba’s acronym for small and medium-sized businesses — under new regulations issued in 2021.
Whole story HERE