• Cuban deputies approve constitutional reforms making socialism
                   irrevocable and ensuring that the Constitution does not become
                   outdated • Fidel describes popular support as impressive

                   BY RAISA PAGES (Granma International staff writer)

                   THE proposed reforms to the Constitution of the Republic,
                   ensuring the irrevocable nature of the socialist system and
                   preventing changes altering its essential content, have been
                   passed by all the deputies present at the special session of
                   the Cuban National Assembly.

                   Moreover, the amendments make it clear that Cuba will never
                   return to capitalism and that economic, diplomatic and
                   political relations with any other state can never be
                   negotiated in the face of aggression, threat or coercion from a
                   foreign power.

                   In a roll call vote, the 559 deputies present at the special
                   session (out of a total membership of 578) stood up in their
                   seats to pronounce their "Yes," in an exercise of their right of
                   expression, converted into unanimous approval, the resonance
                   of which transcended the legislative benches to be heard in
                   Cuban homes, live and direct on television and radio
                   broadcasts of the session. Amendments of this nature require
                   the approval of two thirds of the National Assembly’s
                   members.

                   President Fidel Castro observed that this kind of popular
                   plebiscite can only be effected only in a country where
                   everybody can read and write, and described as impressive
                   the people’s adherence to a Cuban socialism that is
                   irreversible.

                   Ricardo Alarcón, president of the National Assembly of
                   People’s Power, stated that 165 parliamentarians and
                   representatives of the island’s civil society had spoken over
                   the three-day working session, plus speeches by guests from
                   other countries, exposing the consequences of neoliberal
                   democracies in certain Latin American countries.

                   José Luis Toledo, president of the Committee for
                   Constitutional and Juridical Affairs, explained that the reforms
                   apply to Articles 3-11 and 137 of the Constitution, with a
                   special provision to be inserted at the end.

                   The modifications in the initiative previously endorsed by
                   8,198,237 citizens over the age of 16 in a popular plebiscite,
                   are directed at employing the term "irrevocable" rather than
                   "untouchable" to clarify that socialism, as the political and
                   social system recorded in the Constitution, cannot be the
                   object of changes or modifications that could alter its
                   essential content.

                   It was decided that the following paragraph should be added
                   to the current Article 3:

                   "Socialism and the revolutionary political and social system
                   established in the Constitution and proven through years of
                   heroic resistance to aggression of all kinds and economic
                   warfare waged by the successive administrations of the most
                   powerful country that has ever existed, and having
                   demonstrated their capacity to transform the country and
                   create an entirely new and just society, are irrevocable; and
                   Cuba will never again return to capitalism."

                   The special provision states that those reforms constitute a
                   dignified and worthy response to the demands and threats
                   made by the imperialist government of the United States on
                   May 20, 2002.