Havana, Cuba.- Hundreds of thousands of Cubans now have their copy of the text of the country’s draft constitution, as they get ready for popular discussion of the proposed Magna Carta.
Nearly 700,000 copies of the draft version have been distributed in less than one week, and the number is expected to rise to over one million by Tuesday due to a high demand for the new text.
Once the island’s more than 11 million citizens are familiar with the document, they’ll have the chance to debate it in over 135,000 public meetings scheduled to take place in community centers and public institutions and work places across the island’s 169 municipalities between August 13th and November 15th.
The public forums will be facilitated by over 15,000 citizens trained to lead the discussion and compile the suggestions made.
In a historical move, the more than 1.4 million Cubans living abroad will also be able to participate in debates, posting their suggestions on-line, starting the first week of September via Cuba’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs website portal — www.nacionyemigracion.cu/.
Citizens’ suggestions, critiques and complaints will then be channeled to the 605-seat National Assembly, which approved the current draft on July 23rd, for a final debate and vote for approval.
Citizenship in Cuba’s Reform to the Constitution
Havana, Aug 8 (Prensa Latina) The project of the new Cuban Constitution represents a total reform of the Magna Carta enacted since 1976, on the issue of citizenship as one of the conditions that change.
The present law of laws does not admit double citizenship, while the initiative that goes to popular debate from August 13 to November 15, proposes the principle of effective citizenship.
Article 32 of the present Constitution says: ‘Double citizenship will not be admitted. In consequence, when a foreign citizenship is acquired, Cuban citizenship will be lost(…)’.
For its part, the project approved on July 22 by the People’s Power National Assembly says: ‘Cuban citizens in national territory are governed by that condition, in the terms established by the law and cannot make use of a foreign citizenship’.
On that issue, director of Consular Affairs and Cuban Residents Abroad (Daccre) of the Foreign Ministry, Ernesto Soberon, explained in this capital to reporters that the effective citizenship is a principle of law and not a legal norm.
According to the official, in the island it was necessary to include this in the Constitution, in order for it to be reflected afterwards in the corresponding regulations.
The fundamental changes proposed respond to the fact that adoption of a new citizenship does not imply the loss of the Cuban one, and once in national territory, the Cuban citizen abides by it and can only make use of it, he detailed.
According to Soberon, as was proposed, the Cuban citizen who wants to travel abroad or from another country to the island, will have to do it with their Cuban passport.
After the people’s consultation summoned until November 15, the text will return to the National Assembly with the proposals, in order to elaborate the Magna Carta that will go to an approval referendum.