Mayabeque, Cuba_ “The wide range of rights included in the Constitution Project of the Republic, exalts Cubans and prestige the socialist system we are building," expressed the Secretary of the Council of State, Homero Acosta, in a preparatory seminar for the process of popular consultation of the Constitution.

The journalist María Elena Fernández Ruíz interviews the Secretary of the Council of State, Homero Acosta, about the steps prior to the creation of the constitutional project, the aspects that distinguish it in comparison with the Magna Carta of other countries and the citizen's opinion before the process of popular consultation. "The current moment has no similar in the history of the country or in any other part of the world," argued the also member of the National Commission for the approval of the document.

HOMERO: First because here all our people is involved in the construction of a Constitution. There is a prior process of popular consultation that in some countries has been done, but not with the universality and the way it is being done in Cuba, which involves our students, work centers, the population in each of the communities, ours is not compare with any other process in which there has been a Constituent Assembly, in some cases popular consultation, but very small.

Here, from the supreme body that has that constituent faculty, a project was created to be enriched with the criterion of the people, seeking a superior consensus in that important norm that is the Constitution of the Republic.

JOURNALIST: We know that for the preparation of this Constitution Project, other Constitutions were consulted, the most advanced of Latin America, of China, of Viet Nam. In your opinion what elements make our project distinctive or more advanced?

HOM: We have tried to make this Constitution look like the Cuban Revolution and the people of Cuba. We have studied many models, but we had to find the root in our Cuban essence and what distinguishes our political system, it also has singularities related to popular participation, the system of government, the system of State bodies, the wide range of rights and of protection of those rights and the guarantees that are given for the exercise of those rights.

I believe that when one compares any other constitution, it distinguishes that ours is significantly superior, and we say that without vanity and with modesty, we have said that since the beginning, but we also want the people to know that Project which has so many values, not only of today, but of the future, of tomorrow for the new generations. We are building a Constitution with many years for the future of Cuba.

J: This project will be debated within the people, a project that will have a popular consultation from August 13 to November 16. What impact do you think it has on the population the debate of the content of the Magna Carta of our country?

HOM: We appreciate a great avidity and a great desire of the people to analyze the Draft Constitution. There is a great interest; one notices it not only for the amount of tabloids that are being acquired quickly, but by the opinion of the people.

There are some processes that mark the history of the Cuban Revolution and in the case of this Draft Constitution, is generating from the beginning an expression of support of the people and the interest to participate because they know the importance. Our people have a great political culture and know what a Constitution means, knows its value, and therefore, understands that their contribution is fundamental, although not everything that is suggested would be accepted, because it is a document that is built with many opinions , some different and then you have to achieve consensus, often complex.

I think that the country will emerge stronger from this process, not only because it will have a new Constitution that is the fruit of the democratic and genuine process, but because it generates an assessment in the order of the political and legal culture, very necessary for the strengthening of the Revolution, I think that is very important and that is why President Miguel Díaz-Canel said that we had to achieve the unity of the people around this process.

When you see the magnitude of the changes that the text has, when there are changes in the structure of the State, profound changes in each of the rights of citizens, we realize that we are facing a new Constitution with a superior scope.

The text is composed of the preamble, 224 articles, 87 more than the current Constitution, divided into 11 titles, 24 chapters and 16 sections.

Of the current Constitution of the Republic, 11 articles are maintained, 113 are modified and 13 are eliminated.

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