Draft of new constitution approved

MEXICO CITY: Cuban lawmakers on Sunday approved a draft of a new constitution that would seek to modernise the nation by recognising the right to own private property and opening the door to the possible legalisation of same-sex marriage, among other economic, political and social changes.

The document would also encourage foreign investment and strengthen the judicial system, including recognising the presumption of innocence.

The draft constitution would significantly reorganise the government. It calls for creating the position of a prime minister, who would share power with the president, and governorships for the nation’s provinces.

Before it can become official, the document, which would replace the 1976 Soviet-era constitution, will be put before the public in a series of meetings around the country and then be voted on in a national referendum, a process expected to take months.

President Miguel Diaz-Canel Bermudez, who replaced Raul Castro in April, said the approval process would unify the Cuban people and underscore the “genuine democracy” of the nation.

“This exercise of direct participation of the people acquires political relevance and will be a further reflection that the revolution is based on the most genuine democracy,” he said Sunday, according to Granma, Cuba’s state newspaper.

The economic reforms envisioned in the charter would provide a degree of constitutional recognition for market changes that have already been underway, including the private enterprise that has sprung up.

During his two terms as president, Mr Castro took steps to loosen the state’s grip on the economy and open up the nation to a small but vital private sector and to more foreign investment.

“Essentially, they’ve changed so many things in the last two years that a lot of things that are happening are technically unconstitutional,” said Ted Henken, professor of sociology and Latin American studies at Baruch College in New York.

While the draft omits a clause from the 42-year-old constitution laying out the goal of building a “communist society”, it still reinforces the one-party system with the Communist Party as the guiding force in society.

Indeed, the Cuban leadership has insisted that the proposed changes do not represent a move toward the adoption of a capitalist system. Socialism, Granma declared, “is irrevocable, and Cuba will never return to capitalism”.

The president of Cuba’s National Assembly, Esteban Lazo Hernandez, said the deletion of the reference to communism did not suggest that the nation’s political leadership was “renouncing our ideas”. Their vision, he said, remained one of “a socialist, independent, prosperous and sustainable country”.

Andy S Gomez, retired director of the Institute for Cuban and Cuban-American Studies at the University of Miami, called the draft constitution a “really big” development.

While Cuba under the proposed constitution “is far from a democracy”, Mr Gomez said, the reforms seemed to point toward “a very different government than we have seen in the last almost-60 years”.