Friday, January 3, 2014

Life in Castro's Cuba, Part II

What does this section of the reading reveal about the justice system in Cuba under Castro?  How well did special interest groups, such as CDRs and the FMC ensure the success of Castro's revolution?

12 comments:

  1. It seems like Castro re-organized the judiciary system so that it could be tailored to the authoritative qualities of his regime. For example, by setting up tribunals, a greater scrutiny on the daily lives of Cubans was present. Therefore, as surveillance increased, a sense of totalitarian control increased as well (1984-esque). The various groups that emerged also heightened the sense of extreme control over the Cuban population. Membership in the CDRs consisted of nearly 1/3 of the Cuban population by 1976 and membership in the FMC consisted of 3/4 of Cuban women popultaion by 1975! It does seem like people were just appealed by the idea of joining a group because everyone else was doing it. But no matter what the incentive was to join, the article says that it "provided the regime with a formidable mechanism for maintaining control."

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  2. This section reveals how obsessed Castro's justice system was with entirely controlling the people. In the beginning of the reading, I thought these CDR's and the FMC were a good thing, before I realized these organized groups were just a way for Castro to further control his people. The number of people in these groups grew exponentially, and what they accomplished contributed to Castro's revolution. For example, although women in the FMC may have felt like they were gaining their rights, its most characteristic feature was actually conservatism. It took another decade for women to start slowly emerging in politics.

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  3. The that Castro re-organized the judicial system was to better his regime. The forming of the groups such as the CDR and the FMC were ways in which Castro could keep the Cuban peoples in check and have a close eye on their everyday life, while having complete control over the Cuban populace. With most of the Cuban people joining in at least of the group's, it helped Castro keep the women in check in the case of the FMC where 3/4 of the cuban women resided.

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  4. The whole judiciary system was taken over and courts were put under government control. Castro believed that lawyers, by nature, would be conservative and not support the regime so studying became more frowned upon. People were no longer protected and represented as defense attorneys were encouraged to avoid making use of defense motions and inhibit "justice from fulfilling it's social function." The CDR and FMC were simply replacements for the deteriorating judicial system that put those who supported Castro's regime ahead of those who didn't get involved.

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  5. The government had direct control of the system. Law practice was no longer encouraged . This probably was to protect the control the government had and to eliminate any possible threats. Minor courts were also replaced with tribunals; it may not have been the most effective way of law enforcement, but it was a way to increase government power. The CDR "gave people a sense of identity during the regime". The reading revealed that Castro wanted complete government control and takeover. For some reason, this reading reminds me of the book 1984 and the idea of "big brother is watching". It seems like the government was slightly invasive.

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  6. The whole idea about the "Presumption of Guilt" and the surveillance of Tribunal seem to be an device used to oversee the general population's daily behavior and internalizes the ordinarily of communism among people's lives. Also, I am not so sure about that shall I regard the CDR and FMC as a good or an bad thing which Emma did in her post, essentially as the article says as grand as these groups are while occupying more than half the population, would it not be a good thing for people to union together and speak on their behalf? or to certain degree these groups are nothing but means of castro's means of manipulations to regulate and improve his regime. About the criticism about female percentile among political fields, it should not come as a startling phenomenal since the whold world's female political unrepresented trend.

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  7. This reading depicts how obsessed he became with the justice system and controlling the entire population as a whole. In the forming of groups like the CDR and FMC, he shows how important it is for him to keep a close eye and everyone doing exactly what they were supposed to. Ashley said that it seems as though the government was being slightly invasive in doing this. I would disagree and say that they were completely and overly invasive when setting up these systems

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  8. Castro formed the CDR and FMR so that he could maintain control over the people of Cuba. They were very important in keeping the dictatorship in charge, and the public less powerful.

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  9. Like most everything else that Castro tried to achieve, he nationalized the judiciary system, taking private lawyers out of the equation and law school out of the hands of the private. He formed the CRD and FMR to keep the people in check, and the FMR did a good job of handling the women.

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  10. The government controlled justice system Castro set in place seems to be the backbone of his control over the people. The CRD and FMR were formed solely to aid in keeping the people of Cuba in check or under surveillance. Even their daily lives. For instances Cubans can't even read a book unless it is approved by the government.

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  11. Castro nationalized the judiciary system by removing private law firms and making law schools public. This was his way of making sure that nobody was being represented by anyone other than the government. This was a brilliant move by Castro. Once the judiciary system and private lawyers were gone, this made the government "all knowing" in the sense that Castro's people were involved in everyone's problems.

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  12. The law enforcements Castro made from 1973 on are typical for a one-party state. Mostly they have the purpose of complete control of the population. Ending the independence of the judiciary was definitely an important step in this: by making sure that his opponents had no chance to get away he could sort them out as criminals very easily and so eliminate eventual upcoming riots. The tribunals and the CDRs also were an important part in the surveillance of the population. Also typical, the takeover of children's education. As nice as “exemplary parenthood” may sound, similar to the Hitler Youth, this and other programs had the purpose of fabricating individuals that would follow Castro without questioning his ways. It is funny to see how many of his groups or programs sounded like a great support for the people, why they really only imposed more control on the people. The FMC is a great example for that. When I started reading about it, I was impressed at first. Then I saw it in a bigger picture, remembered that these were the 70's and how women in other places of the world naturally had the rights that here were pictured as new privileges for women. In fact, the FMC only kept women in their traditional roles.

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