New Cuban constitution gets 87 percent approval

[sandensea]

Nearly 87% of Cuban voters approved a new constitution that preserves the island's single-party socialist system and centrally planned economy while updating some financial, electoral and criminal laws, authorities said Monday.

The new constitution recognizes private and cooperative businesses alongside state ones, creates the posts of prime minister and provincial governor, and introduces the presumption of innocence and habeas corpus to the justice system.

In recent weeks, President Miguel Díaz-Canel's government waged a non-stop campaign promoting a "yes" vote and tarring those voting "no" as counterrevolutionaries and enemies of the state. Aside from a few independent websites, all Cuban media is state-run and the airwaves were filled with messages urging people to vote "yes" for the sake of continuity on the island.

"This constitution establishes the best for the country, for the future of the Cuban people," said Miguel Álvarez, a 57-year-old technician for the Havana water utility. "It eliminates past mistakes and points us toward the future."

The "no" campaign, in turn, was amplified by the rapid spread of mobile internet across Cuba in recent months. Some 2 million Cubans on the island have contracted mobile data service since it was offered for the first time in December.

The largest block of "no" votes was expected to come from the growing ranks of evangelical Christians in Cuba, who object to language that eliminates a requirement for marriage to be only between a man and woman, paving the way for a future legalization of gay marriage.

At: https://www.sfgate.com/news/world/article/New-Cuban-constitution-gets-87-percent-approval-13643581.php

Cuban President Miguel Díaz-Canel speaks to reporters after voting in Sunday's constitutional referendum.

The new constitution, which replaces the one enacted in 1976, would recognize private and cooperative businesses alongside state ones, as well as the presumption of innocence and habeas corpus.

It would, however, maintain the island's single-party socialist system.

[comradebillyboy]

1. I'm surprised it wasn't 99% since the only choice on the ballot was yes.

That is an exaggeration of course, but the idea of free elections in Cuba is a joke. It's a one party authoritarian regime.

[sandensea]

2. Yeah. The new constitution is an improvement over the one Fidel Castro enacted in 1976.

But it falls short of reforming the totalitarian nature of Cuban governance.

I'm surprised Narco Rubio isn't using this as a pretext to demand a new Bay of Pigs.

[comradebillyboy]

3. Rubio is a spineless twit. Regardless, our Cuba policy is a mess.

Pandering to the reactionary Cuban expats is no way to run foreign policy.

[sandensea]

4. +1

And what's worse, those guys basically run our entire Latin America policy - even against progressive governments that, while friendly to Castro, actually had nothing to do with him policy-wise.

Partly as a result, these have almost all been replaced with hard-right kleptocrats (Brazil's Bolsonaro, Colombia's Duque, Argentina's Macri, etc.).

They wave the U.S. flag all the time; but are actually a major foreign policy embarrassment because to the rest of the world they are "U.S.-aligned."