Matanzas.–This Sunday, June 30, marks 50 years since the first democratic elections in Cuba as part of the so-called Experience of the Organs of Popular Power, a test for which this province served as a laboratory between 1974 and 1976.
That day was born, according to Cuban scholars, a system that is very much ours, authentic and without references in the world, with the people at the center of power, conceived to respond to the need to establish a new organizational structure of the State.
A system that has essentially fulfilled its assigned role, but as it is not static, convenience dictates its constant improvement, aimed at deepening our democracy and eliminating deficiencies to increase the effectiveness of its management.
More than the new realities, they are demands of our society, without this implying the adulteration of its essence or altering the core of the system in the slightest, since there is no fairer government strategy.
Witnesses from Matanzas of that event of incalculable significance for the destiny of the Cuban nation, especially remember the presence of the historic leader of the Revolution, on the morning of Sunday, June 30, 1974, to learn about the development of those first elections.
The presence of the Commander in Chief was an additional motivation for those who came very early to cast their vote at the polling stations.
A photo immortalizes his visit to the polling station on Jáuregui Street, in the main city, surrounded by a large representation of the people of Matanzas.
The maximum leader of the Revolution had words of praise for the people of Matanzas, for organizing a process of great popular participation, a sign of confidence in the new system of government that, as a test, would serve for its later generalization to the rest of the country. in 1976, after its approval at the First Congress of the Party.
Five decades after that event, a wide range of activities were organised in the territory to commemorate the date, including cultural and sporting events, exchanges with delegates, visits to museums and historical sites, as well as photographic exhibitions and the cancellation of a postage stamp.
It was a date, Fidel himself would acknowledge, on which “the purest elections in the history of our country took place, elections without compromises, without fraud, without demagoguery, without politicking.”
These five decades have served to reinforce that phrase expressed precisely by him: “The power of the people, that is power.”
