Cuba Limits the Use of Fidel Castro’s Name
HAVANA TIMES – The Cuban National Assembly approved a law on Tuesday banning the use of Fidel Castro’s name in public spaces and using his image on monuments, as the former Cuban president asked before he died.
“It is forbidden to use his name to name institutions, plazas, parks, streets and other public places, as well as any type of decoration, recognition or honorary title”, determined the bill approved by the parliament which passes all legislation by unanimous vote.
The parliament also banned the use of Fidel’s figure “to erect monuments, busts, statues, commemorative cards and other similar forms of homage”.
The law also limits the use of the figure of Fidel for commercial advertising purposes such as emblems, trademarks, slogans and labels of establishments.
However, the law exempted the use of the name “to name in the future any institution which is believed, according to law, to study Fidel’s invaluable role in the history of the nation.”
Neither did they impose limitations on the use of his iconography and images “in public events, as well as his photos in work or study centers, military units and institutions.
The last will of Fidel Castro was made known by his brother Raul during a political farewell ceremony held on December 3 in Santiago de Cuba, where the following day his ashes were buried in the Santa Ifigenia Cemetery.
I still have my cuban peso where Fidel is featured talking to the people but it is his backside we see, not his face. I was told he always felt this way but was surprised to see pictures of him on road side signs and billboards in the country side.
Fidel was nothing if not a shrewd politician. He knows full well that forbidding statutes et al only adds to his mystique. In due time, even this limitation will be set aside.
I was perplexed that the fact that Fidel had no statues dedicated in his honor, unlike Lenin, Stalin, Mao, the Kims, and Ho Chi Minh. Although Elian Gonzalez at one said Fidel would be my god, the law now makes a personality cult all but impossible.