Lawmakers Preserve Cuba's Socialism

JUNE 27, 06:37 ET

By ANITA SNOW
Associated Press Writer
http://wire.ap.org/?FRONTID=CSA&SLUG=CUBA%2dPOLITICS

HAVANA (AP) — Cuban lawmakers voted unanimously to make socialism an ``irrevocable'' part of the constitution in an effort to ensure the nation will remain socialist long after Fidel Castro is gone.

More than 500 members of Cuba's unicameral National Assembly voted late Wednesday to declare that ``capitalism will never return again'' to the Caribbean island.

Deputies' names were called out in alphabetical order and each one stood up and shouted ``Si!'' into a microphone. Of Cuba's 578 deputies, 559 were present and all voted affirmatively.

Deputies grew emotional and almost giddy during the tally, eventually applauding loudly after each vote. When the final vote had been declared unanimous, the deputies first stood stoically at attention for the Cuban national anthem, then held hands and swayed back in forth as they sang the socialist anthem, ``Internationale.''

Castro presided over the session and afterward personally greeted many of the lawmakers in the assembly.

Castro, who came to power in the 1959 revolution, declared Cuba's government to be socialist two years later, on the eve of the aborted Bay of Pigs invasion by a U.S.-trained exile army.

``We need socialism more today than ever!'' Castro said before the vote. ``To guarantee the future, a strong ideological base is needed.''

The amendment was proposed because Cuba felt increased pressure at home and abroad to carry out democratic reforms.

The proposal originally described Cuba's system as ``untouchable,'' but the National Assembly's commission on constitutional and legal affairs later decided ``irrevocable'' was more precise.

Vice President Carlos Lage, a top leader in both the government and the Communist Party, declared, ``The best political system is of just one party. True democracy is socialist. And the only way to defend human rights is in a society of equality and social justice.''

``For our people to return to the past is undesirable, unthinkable, impossible'' Lage said of Washington's recent demands that Cuba embrace capitalism and U.S.-style democracy. ``The homeland is sacred, the revolution is unconquerable and socialism is irrevocable.''

At 50, Lage is among the younger high-ranking government officials expected to help guide Cuba after the deaths of Castro and his brother and designated successor, Defense Minister Raul Castro.

The lawmakers' sessions, broadcast live on state television and radio, were supposed to run just Monday and Tuesday. A nationwide work stoppage was declared, closing banks, schools, offices and many stores and factories so that Cubans could watch the proceedings on television.

Foreign Minister Felipe Perez Roque said Tuesday the measure was necessary to protect the current system after the Castro brothers die. It was a rare public reference to their mortality.

The constitutional amendment is ``key,'' said Perez Roque, to ``what we do when the generation that carried out the revolution, and the command of it today, the generation of Fidel, of Raul ... is no longer with us.''

``The key is not to be disarmed of our ideas,'' said the foreign minister, who at 37 is among the youngest of the ranking officials in the communist government.

Perez Roque also said Cuba's Communist Party and Revolutionary Armed Forces must never be dismantled to ensure that socialism endures.

Fidel Castro, who will be 76 in August, and Raul Castro, 71, are both members of parliament.

The government says the amendment is its answer to President Bush's refusal last month to lift American trade and travel restrictions until Cuba undertakes reforms, including multiparty elections.

Government opponents said the measure also appear aimed at undermining the Varela Project, which seeks a referendum on whether voters favor guarantees for liberties such as freedom of expression and the right to own a business.

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