An Inteview With Cuba's Vice President: Ricardo Alarcon

[Itsthetruth]

CounterPunch
February 12 / 13, 2005
An Interview with Ricardo Alarcon Cuba's Vice President and President of its National Assembly

The US is Declining
By SAUL LANDAU

Saul Landau teaches at Cal Poly Pomona University, where he is the director of Digital Media Programs and International Outreach, and is a fellow of the Institute for Policy Studies.

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Landau: Elections in Iraq?

Alarcon: "Much ado about nothing," as Shakespeare said. Elections were a pretext to extend U.S. control. I don't believe the U.S. will withdraw. They can't give a sense they may abandon Iraq without giving the impression of having suffered a big defeat. I don't think elections solve political problems in Iraq. The U.S. occupation remains an issue.


Landau: And the U.S. media?

Alarcon: American propaganda machinery excels at manipulating elections. I remember a group of U.S. legislators trying to play a role in guaranteeing fair elections in the Ukraine. Remember the recent contested elections there? At the same time groups in the U.S. were demanding the right to review votes in Ohio, or trying to get recounts because of claims that there were voting violations there. I don't remember a single U.S. senator going from Washington to Cleveland or Cincinnati to see what was happening, but they went all the way to Iraq. Remember the 2004 referendum and elections in Venezuela. A number of U.S. politicians and the U.S. media got very concerned with fair voting in Venezuela but not in their own states. If they were to apply to U.S. elections similar standards to those they applied to Venezuela, my god, in Venezuela even the opposition accepted the result of the plebiscite as did international groups. Later, opponents of Chavez accepted them. People from the opposition were elected. The possibility of questioning election results in the U.S. is vanishing. And recounting-- that word that will disappear from the English language dictionary.

Landau: Anything positive about the U.S. election?

Alarcon: The most beautiful thing, somewhat missed in the media, happened in Puerto Rico. A U.S. territory under U.S. administration had the old fashioned vote, where you mark what you want to mark. It's possible to count and recount once, twice endlessly and assure that whoever gets more votes wins. In the U.S., you cannot do that in many places. So, while the U.S. media focused on Iraqi elections and ignored voting complaints by African Americans, the Puerto Ricans were recounting their ballots, one by one. They get exact results in polling station by polling station, municipality by municipality. They saw who won and who lost. In the U.S. a kind of monarchial principal reigns, as if the candidate was the owner of the people's will. Supposedly, one candidate concedes to demonstrate that his opponent won. Recall how Mr. Gore conceded in 2000? So what? Was he the owner of the people's votes? In the U.S. it's a far cry from one man one vote. And the winner is not necessarily the one who gets more votes as the 2000 election showed.

Landau: How would fair elections in Iraq look?

Alarcon: Why don't U.S. soldiers vote? Hold a referendum for American soldiers to choose between staying there for the rest of their lives for democracy and freedom, American style, or returning home. It's a relevant issue.

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http://www.counterpunch.org/landau02122005.html

[cire4]

1. Smart man....interesting perspective

There is much that the US propaganda machine is refusing to tell us about Cuba...