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Constitucional Debate
and Citizens

in Cuba

Manuel Cuesta Morúa
Historian and political scientist
Spokesperson Progressive Arc Party (Parp)
National Coordinator Nuevo País Platform
Member Citizen’s Committee for Racial Integration (CIR)
Havana, Cuba

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T

he difficult debate has begun. It has begun
via the most important of positions: via the
citizenry. Constitutional Consensus has
been inviting experts, activists, but basically citizens to think amongst themselves—all of them—
of how to confirm the roadmap that efficiently
will lead us to consensual rules with which to
build our next attempt at coexistence on civilized
underpinnings. Foremost in the discussion are the
laws that will facilitate this.
This is a first in Cuba.
Those rules are called the Constitutional Rule of
Law and they serve as a model and descriptor for
the New Nation. In principle, it concerns and concerned resisting the ruling elite’s temptation and
getting beyond the vanguard’s aesthetic syndrome. This last issue is essential because more
than one nation-building project has been sunk by
this phenomenon.
Citizen participation in the constitutional definition of our democratic process is being achieved
through Mesas de Iniciativa Constitucional [Constitutional Initiative Tables] (MIC), in a democratic way, precisely, a vital point for leaving behind the means-goal relationship that has destroyed the political connection between the State
and citizens, and among citizens, themselves.
This relationship had finally led to cynicism regarding the possible political construction of the

State, which is what has been happening in Latin
America, where so-called participatory democracies have enshrined new, elected caudillos.
What is taking place in Cuba is a sort of intellectual reporting of these citizens’ debates through
the island, in hundreds of MICs, all taking place
on two different days in the months of May and
June. From their participants emerged diverse,
complementary or contrasting views.
As it is already known, these debates were structured around the subject of the Constitutions of
1940, of 1976 and the proposal known worldwide
as New Constitutionalism. In many of the last
century’s constitutions, this New Constitutionalism is already known for having placed serious
limitations on the expression of culture, demands,
rights and the necessary kind of relationship
needed between States, citizens and society.
These controversies, which have only just begun,
are playing out at the same time that citizens’ signatures and proposals are being collected from an
ever growing number of citizens, civic organizations and independent, community politics in
Cuba.
Let me begin with preliminary background, so as
to provide some context for these debates. Cuba
has been a totalitarian State and society for more
than 50 years. This has meant the meticulous destruction of the very notions of Law and rights,