Cubans Access Draft Constitution a Week before Consultations

Thousands of Cubans nationwide are buying the draft of the new Constitution a week before the beginning of popular consultations to enrich the text.

Sources from the entrepreneurial group Correos de Cuba told reporters that more than 600,000 issues of the Draft Constitution had been acquired until last weekend, and the one-million mark is expected to be reached tomorrow. In tours of newspaper outlets in this capital, Prensa Latina verified the high demand for the tabloid, which is sold at one Cuban peso.

On July 22, the People's Power National Assembly approved the Draft Constitution at the first ordinary session of the 9th Legislature (2018-2023), and called popular consultations on the document from August 13 to November 15.

After that process, the text will return to the Parliament for modifications and it will be submitted later to a referendum to be approved or not.

The debate includes, for the first time, the possibility for Cubans who reside overseas to express their criteria and make proposals.

It is a major decision, based on the growing number of Cubans who live in other countries and the magnitude of the reform, according to the director of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad (Daccre) at the Foreign Ministry, Ernesto Soberón.

The official noted that Cubans living overseas will have the opportunity to contribute to the development of a socialist and democratic society, guided by humanism and solidarity, elements that are contained in the new Constitution.

That step is a unequivocal show of our government's will to continue to advance in a process that started in 1978 to strengthen links with Cubans who reside abroad (about 1.4 million in 120 countries, according to official statistics) and who will be able to express their opinions in the first week of September, after technical conditions are created for their participation on the Nation and Emigration website of the Cuban Foreign Ministry at http://www.nacionyemigracion.cu/.