Alters constitution at Castro's behest

 By Anita Snow, Associated Press, 6/28/2002

 HAVANA - Cuba's one-party socialist state was engraved in the constitution as ''irrevocable'' this
 week after Fidel Castro's communist parliament followed his call to reject domestic and foreign
 efforts to introduce democratic change.

 Castro was believed to have called the special session of the rubber-stamp National Assembly -
 which passed the constitutional amendment late Wednesday - after the convergence of a number of
 challenges.

 Internally, a group mounted the Varela Project, gathering Cubans' signatures for a referendum
 asking voters if they favored individual rights such as freedom of speech and the ability to own a
 business. The National Assembly has not officially responded to the petition drive that delivered
 11,000 signatures six weeks ago.

 Former President Jimmy Carter endorsed the Varela Project in a nationally broadcast speech
 during his visit to the island last month and called for democratic reforms. Most Cuban citizens first
 heard of the Varela signature drive from Carter.

 Last month, President Bush promised the United States would not lift restrictions on travel and
 trade with Cuba until the island held multiparty elections.

 Parliament's adoption of the constitutional change will ''annul the people's sovereignty,'' said
 Oswaldo Paya, organizer of the Varela Project.

 ''This is very grave,'' Paya said. ''Cuba has ceased to be a republic.''

 While holding little hope the petition drive would ever be taken seriously by the communist
 government, Paya still forecast change in the near term.

 ''Someday, very soon, the people will make a new constitution,'' he said.

 Castro led a revolution to power in Cuba in 1959 and two years later, on the eve of the failed
 US-backed Bay of Pigs invasion, declared the country socialist.

 In the four decades since, Castro has defied repeated calls for change, even after the collapse of his
 main source of trade and aid - the Soviet Union - sent the communist island nation into an economic
 tailspin in the early 1990s.

 Of Cuba's 578 deputies, 559 were present and all voted for the proposed amendment declaring the
 socialist system ''irrevocable, and capitalism will never return again to Cuba.'' To that end, an article
 of the constitution was changed making it illegal for lawmakers to attempt to change the socialist
 system in the future.

 Although deputies are elected, only one party - the Communist Party - is legal here. Not a single
 deputy protested, objected, or qualified his or her support.

 ''Now, the theoretical possibility no longer exists in the constitution of the republic to exchange
 socialism for capitalism,'' Castro said shortly before the vote.

 Cuba's mass organizations - all tied to the Communist Party - gathered the signatures of more than
 8 million people calling for the constitutional change. Many people said they felt compelled to sign
 because party loyalty can lead to a better life.