174 Chapter 7
island, including the Cuban National Assembly (Asamblea Nacional
del Poder Popular).
Asserting that Freemasons contribute to enhance civil society as a
whole is nothing new. For example, Jacobs (1991) studied the contri-
bution of freemasons to civil societies in Europe, and Rich (1993), the
role of freemasons in the education of Elites in future governments.
Strengthening Cuban civil society is particularly important because,
after fifty years of a single-party rule under the same leader, this aged
and ailing Fidel Castro has finally transferred power to his brother
Raul, also an aged member of his inner circle.
On the other hand, we also affirm that Raul is pursuing the path of
change, even if slowly and cautiously. Several former cabinet ministers
and highly placed government officers have now been dismissed. New
areas of the economy, such as agriculture and lesser commerce, have
been opened to private enterprise. And a past-due Cuban Communist
Party Congress has been called for the Spring of 2011. Thence, the
urgent need to also start a national discussion inside Cuba that can
effect the changes to be made.
Moreover, economic conditions inside Cuba are very weak. The
combination of these two factors, political and economic change, and
an impoverished people, are lethal and could lead to a crisis, generat-
ing violence and civil war, triggering foreign intervention.
To prevent this, a peaceful and negotiated transition, such as the
ones that occurred under somewhat similar situations in Brazil, Chile
and Spain, is preferred. But for such outcome to occur, there must
first exist a strong civil society, where free discussions can take place,
and where new ideas, leaders, and social groups can arise, so that such
an opening can be negotiated. We believe that CF can greatly contrib-
ute to such a development.
In the rest of this paper we will discuss the particular characteris-
tics that CF bring to the table, and their specific contributions for
building a stronger civil society in the island. We will first show, using
results from a demographic study of the second half of the XX Cen-