The Cuban-American political scientist Julio Shiling, director of the Patria de Martí project, proposed a radical process of "decommunization" as an essential condition for any democratic transition in Cuba, and warned that allowing the Communist Party of Cuba to compete in elections would amount to "validating their crimes against humanity."
Shiling presented his proposal during an interview with CiberCuba in which he analyzed the results of the survey on political and social perspectives in Cuba, launched with the support of more than 20 independent media outlets.
The political scientist used the historical reference of the denazification in Germany after World War II: "The perfect model is what happened in Nazi Germany, where very few people suffered imprisonment, but they did have to account for their participation in the Nazi Party."
Shiling particularly emphasized the concept of lustration, a mechanism implemented in post-communist Eastern Europe, through which individuals associated with the regime were disqualified from holding public office: "Certain individuals could no longer serve as judges or university professors due to their close ties to a bloody regime."
For the expert, this process is essential for healing Cuban social fabric: "This type of process must be carried out for Cubans to believe, because the psychological damage experienced and the lack of trust in the political system by individuals who grew up in a system like Castro-communism is perfectly understandable."
Shiling compared this collective wound to that suffered by the citizens of North Korea: "North Koreans are greatly harmed by the system. Well, so are people in Cuba, and healing requires the removal of those institutions that are the cause of this harm."
This proposal is part of a ten-point plan that Shiling detailed in his book Democratization in Cuba: "A Concise Manual" (2016), where decommunization occupies the second point and includes the legal prohibition of the PCC, the removal of totalitarian symbols from public spaces, the opening of regime archives, and the recovery of properties confiscated since 1959.
In a more relaxed tone, Shiling responded to those at a recent event advocating for the annexation of Cuba to the United States with a joke: "I believe that what a democratic Cuba should do is annex Miami-Dade County, because indeed the Cubans in what is Miami have had an extraordinary impact in making it the capital of Latin America."
This reflection is framed within his concept of "Cuban nation," which transcends territory and, according to Shiling, explains the alignment of opinions among Cubans on the Island and in exile revealed by the survey: "We are very much supported by returning to the concept of the Cuban nation that lives outside. In other words, it is as if it were an extension of the country."
The preliminary results of the independent media survey showed that 75.1% of participants support transitioning to a capitalist model of liberal democracy, 92% express strong dissatisfaction with the current system, and 94% do not trust the government to resolve the crisis.
Shiling was adamant about accountability for the regime's crimes, rejecting any formula that evades justice: "There must be accountability for those who committed crimes against humanity. That cannot be swept under the rug."
The political scientist had previously defended similar positions in earlier appearances, where he analyzed the possibility of a U.S. intervention against Cuba and proposed federal charges against the Castro family, arguing that no totalitarian regime falls by itself.
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