Cuban Democracy

Democracia Cubana

Spreading the word	The revolution may have brought neither prosperity nor democracy, but you've got to give credit where credit is due. Who would try to stuff a ballot box guarded by a bunch of schoolgirls?
Election monitors take a breather from the stress with a game of patty cake.	And how 'bout those shoes? All students in Cuba wear uniforms, but apparently the rules of proper attire do not extend to footwear.
These gentlemen were only too happy to welcome us into the polling place, and had no objection to being photographed doing their bit to insure that the revolution would continue to be well-protected.

In the rest of the world, April 23 was Easter Sunday, but in Cuba, it was election day. The true believers in every local district in the land were electing representatives to serve on their local Committee for the Defense of the Revolution. Candidate photographs and biographies had been posted on the doors of public buildings throughout the land, but it was impossible for an outsider -- particularly one with only very limited competence in Spanish -- to know how competitive the election really was. "All the candidates are the same," a skeptic assured me. "It doesn't make any difference who wins."

Democracia Cubana

Spreading the word

The revolution may have brought neither prosperity nor democracy, but you've got to give credit where credit is due. Who would try to stuff a ballot box guarded by a bunch of schoolgirls?

Election monitors take a breather from the stress with a game of patty cake.

And how 'bout those shoes? All students in Cuba wear uniforms, but apparently the rules of proper attire do not extend to footwear.

These gentlemen were only too happy to welcome us into the polling place, and had no objection to being photographed doing their bit to insure that the revolution would continue to be well-protected.