Cuban Workers Comment on New Constitution Draft

Cuban workers involved in passenger transport today held a meeting in this capital to issue criteria on the draft of the new Constitution, supporting the amendment to the new Magna Carta.

Employees of taxi companies and ticket sales expresed their opinion about the 224-article text, which represents a total reform of the Constitution in force since 1976, while maintaining the socialist character of the island and the leading role of the Communist Party in their society.

For Julio Luis Baez, the article 31 of the project, which qualifies work as 'a primordial value of our society,' should established that it is, as well as a duty, obligatory for all persons who are able to work.

Luis Guillen proposed adding the adherence to Fidel's legacy in the Preamble of the Constitution, while another participant in the meeting advocated simplifying article 41, which mentions the State's responsibility in creating the necessary conditions for equality and education.

In the continuation of the debates framed in the popular consultation scheduled in Cuba from August 13 to November 15, Cubans issued their criteria for the text in other centers of work and education centers, as well as in neighborhoods.

Not limiting to 60 years the age of the President of the Republic for the beginning of his mandate, the lack of consensus on the proposal to define marriage as the union of two people without specifying the sex, and the possibility that Cubans can invest in the national economy, were included among the aspects debated.