Op-ed: The new Cuban constitution fails to guarantee fundamental freedoms

On Feb. 24, Cubans went to the polls to vote on a new constitution. The result, according to international press headlines, was that Cubans voted overwhelmingly for change, with 86 percent of voters approving the new constitution. The truth, however, is that we don’t know the real numbers. Like all elections in Cuba, there is no transparency and no observers from civil society or the international community. What we do know is that the government of Cuba drew a line in the sand and resorted to hard-nosed measures to ensure that advocates for a No vote were identified and threatened. On Feb. 21, Madrid-based CubaData published the results of a poll showing widespread rejection of the regime’s new constitution. The poll showed that 41.60 percent of Cubans were willing to vote No, and that 16 percent would abstain.
Read the full article here: Miami Herald