Guantanamo.- On Wednesday, in a new installment of the podcast From the Presidency, dedicated on this occasion to the visits that the top leadership of the Party has made throughout the country during the first semester of the year, there was an exchange of lessons learned, challenges, good and bad experiences, dissatisfactions, problems and possible answers.
The host of that space, the First Secretary of the Central Committee and President of the Republic, Miguel Díaz-Canel Bermúdez, was accompanied by journalists Arleen Rodríguez Derivet and Alina Perera Robbio, with whom he reflected on the importance of the visits, which are nothing more than a working system that gives continuity, he said, to a method used by Fidel and Raúl, from whom we learned the permanent link with the base, no matter how difficult the circumstances and complex the problems.
January marked the beginning of that work agenda which, at the end of the first six months of the year, had allowed us to visit 73 municipalities out of the 168 that Cuba has, as well as to exchange with thousands of people throughout the country.
Some in favor, others against, the truth is that the opinions generated from this system of work have also become a catalyst for outlining paths towards which to direct the main efforts of the nation, in the search for progress in its economic and social development.
The visits, stressed the Head of State, are “conceived to touch on the problems that we know exist, and determine how we can support the territory from the agencies of the Central State Administration, also from the work of the Party, but above all seeking reflections, analysis, from a self-critical and critical point of view, and also everything that can be done and can be organized and planned at the level of municipality and province.”
In this regard, in view of the existence of negative criteria among the population, associated with issues such as the preparation of the visits in the territories, the solution of immediate problems when it is known about the arrival of the tour, and others, President Díaz-Canel said that the places to be visited are selected with intentionality, because “we know the problems beforehand, because we have studied them and we go straight to them.”
It is true, he said, that the visits “do not solve all the problems, but they do help to face them better with the cooperation of local, territorial and also national efforts.”
None of us, he emphasized, has a magic wand to solve them all at once, especially because of the complexity of many of them, but going to the places “allows us to see what is happening, to draw interrelationships, to see where there are weaknesses in management, where there may be some signs of apathy, where there may be fatigue in those who lead, or where there may be a lack of knowledge.”
After a brief account of the strategy followed from the outset, which seeks to banish complacency and share good experiences to make them inspiring for those who have not yet managed to make better use of their potential, the dignitary invited journalist Alina Perera Robbio to share her perspective on what these visits mean.
Places that are extremely complex, others not so complex, are the usual scenario for exchanges, to which, Perera Robbio reflected, the “country’s leadership does not go to induce, it goes looking for dialogues, shared truths.”
From her point of view as a reporter of the Presidential Press Team that has accompanied Díaz-Canel and Roberto Morales Ojeda in this first half of the year, she considered that sometimes there are very hard meetings, but at the same time they are familiar and without complacency, which seek to “move the thought to transform realities.”
The idea, he said, is that “all those who can contribute to Cuba with their hands and their intelligence, move forward.”
The Cuban leader also spoke of the fundamental role played by the auxiliary structure of the Central Committee of the Party before each visit and the deployment of control commissions in each municipality, because the issue, he insisted, “is to improve ourselves, the issue is to grow, the issue is to learn, the issue is to move forward and contribute more to what the population needs.”
And if in the most difficult moments there are those who have shown that it is possible to move forward and find solutions, despite the economic shortages, reality has shown, as President Díaz-Canel acknowledged in the final minutes of the dialogue, that in “Cuba we may lack everything, sometimes we lack discipline, organization, system and systematicity in our work, but we have plenty of good and talented people, creative people, people who know that their contribution can make a difference, especially in difficult times like these.”
That is why, he emphasized, “this Revolution cannot be lost”, because it is not only “the destiny of Cuba, it is not only the destiny of Cubans, but it would also be the end of the dreams of millions of people in the world.”
Each visit, he commented, we turn it into a workshop to build consensus, exchange on work styles, make criticisms, as well as promote solutions and socialize them. And that is a tremendous learning experience, it is the possibility of appreciating the reality, it is an opportunity to talk and exchange with the population that contributes a lot to us.
“And because 65 years ago Cubans learned to sustain our sacred independence against all odds, it continues to be demonstrated in these times that, with talent, dedication, creativity and courage, it is possible,” the president reflected.
That is a very deep conviction we have, he said, which “moves us every day to seek in the moral reserves of our people, that energy that can never be lacking.”
Edited by Liubis Balart
