The Cuban parliament voted unanimously on Wednesday to approve an amendment entrenching socialism in the country’s constitution.
After three days of debate, the 601 lawmakers — 535 of whom are members of the Cuban Communist Party — officially approved the amendment that was heavily promoted by President Fidel Castro, the sole leader of this island state since its communist revolution 43
years ago.
He told the assembly that by writing socialism into the
constitution, Cuba would ”fundamentally guarantee the future and
establish an ideological basis from which the country would never
return.”
Without this, he warned, it was possible that the ”national
assembly would change the socialist nature of the revolution.”
The amendment’s outcome had never been in doubt as the lawmakers
were ordered by Castro to debate the proposed modification ”for as
long as it takes.”
The version approved Wednesday made socialism an ”irrevocable”
part of the Cuban political and social ideology, a slight change
from an initial wording that made it ”inalienable.”
The change had been suggested by the Assembly’s judicial affairs
commission and was put to an alphabetical voice vote after three
hours of comments by Castro.
Castro has come under pressure in recent comments from
Washington — and dissidents on the island — calling for
democratic reforms in Cuba, the America’s only communist-ruled
nation.
Before the vote, Castro sought to legitimize the changewith a
public petition that, according to official statistics, drew
signatures from 99 percent of voting-age Cubans who supported the
change.
The vote took place after three days of debate in which 168
lawmakers and special guests took the podium under the constant
glare of television cameras.
Among them was Vice President Carlos Lage, 50, the man who
spearheaded the economic reforms of the 1990s that opened Cuba to
tourism, who made a strong plea for maintaining political unity.
”Unity is essential and has been one of the outstanding lessons
of our history,” Lage said. ”We’ll always have only one party, and
not just any party, we’ll have the Communist Party of Cuba.”
The government granted a national three-day furlough to all
workers so they could follow the proceedings.
US President George W. Bush last month vowed to uphold the
four-decade-old US embargo on Cuba until Havana holds certifiably
free and fair elections and overhauls its economic system.
Cuban lawmakers had been given a leaflet detailing speeches by
Bush on May 20 and June 1 in which he not only urged elections but
also threatened possible pre-emptive military action against
nations that support terrorism — which, in Washington’s eyes,
includes Cuba.
”International law, which President Bush is determined to
ignore, recognizes the right of Cuba to choose its own political
system,” Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said during Tuesday’s
debate.
”We cannot permit either amendments or reforms to anyone from
outside,” Deputy Carlos Gutierrez said. ”I am totally in agreement
with the proposed reforms.”
In May, dissidents on the island had presented the National
Assembly with an unprecedented petition calling for free,
multiparty elections and economic liberalization.
The dissidents said the government’s ”referendum” was meant to a
transparent ploy to foil Cuban aspirations to democracy. Sapa-AFP