One of the events that marked our struggles for independence and demonstrated the importance our heroes placed on the rule of law was the promulgation of the Mambí constitutions. The first of these was the Guáimaro Constitution, approved on April 10, 1869, 155 years ago. José Martí described this historical event: “Cuba had no more beautiful day than April 10, 1869 (…) the day of absolute generosity in Cuban history was April 10.”
After the armed uprising of October 10, 1868, Carlos Manuel de Céspedes proclaimed himself supreme leader of the revolution. However, he was one of the main leaders of a conspiracy that included patriots from Las Villas, Camagüey, and Oriente – almost all of them lawyers – who aimed not only to organize the conflict but also to lay the democratic foundations of the future republic.
It is said that the first Mambí constitution was drafted in just two hours by Ignacio Agramonte and Antonio Zambrano, former students of José de la Luz y Caballero. The Guáimaro Constitution consisted of 29 articles. The first established that legislative power would reside in the Chamber of Representatives, which was also responsible for appointing the President and the Chief General.
The constitution aimed to prevent any possible abuse of power, as stated in Article 8, which allowed any citizen to accuse the President, the Chief General, or any member of the legislative body before the Chamber of Representatives. However, disputes over the dominance of the legislature weakened the centralized command needed in wartime.
The principle of equality was reaffirmed by Articles 24 and 26, which stated that all Cuban citizens were entirely free and that the Republic would not recognize special dignities, honors, or privileges. The Guáimaro Assembly was the first of its kind in Cuban history, and the constitution it proclaimed on April 10, 1869, remained in effect until March 23, 1878, when the Baraguá Constitution, with only five articles, was promulgated to proclaim the continuation of the struggle.
But the Guáimaro Constitution was not the first legal document of its kind in Cuba. José Joaquín Infante authored the first Cuban republican constitution, published in Caracas in 1812. It is also known that Narciso López drafted another constitution in 1850, consisting of 23 articles.
From the Guáimaro Constitution to the Present
José Martí, aware that authoritarianism was deeply rooted in Spanish American republics, drafted the Bases of the Cuban Revolutionary Party (PRC), a document that undoubtedly demonstrates his belief in republican democracy.
In Article 4 of these bases, it was established: “The PRC does not propose to perpetuate in the Cuban Republic, with new forms or with alterations more apparent than essential, the authoritarian spirit and bureaucratic composition of the colony…” And Article 5 stated: “The PRC does not aim to bring to Cuba a victorious group that considers the island as its prey and domain.”
In this sense, Martí’s document essentially contained the democratic and civil spirit that permeated the Guáimaro Constitution at the time. Cuban constitutional history continued to grow during the republican era, reaching its peak with the 1940 Constitution, swept away by Batista and definitively buried by Fidel Castro, who publicly stated that one of the objectives of his struggle was to restore it along with democracy. Since then, there has been legal regression, both in theory and in practice.
True to their manipulative practices, the communists organized a discussion process for the Draft Constitution where everything had been decided beforehand. And to proclaim the new legal caricature created by them, they chose April 10, 2019, the 150th anniversary of the approval of the Guáimaro Constitution.
If we contrast that Constitution with the one imposed by the communists, it becomes clear that the current document lacks practical solidity, as the rights it proclaims are systematically violated by those empowered within the Communist Party. After more than six decades of Castro’s dictatorship, the democratic ideals of the Guáimaro Constitution are still a dream for Cubans.
With successive generations of Cubans subjected to extraordinary ideological indoctrination, characterized by the manipulation of history, Castroism has enjoyed the “honeys of power” for an extended period and has made the grossest and most stubborn denial of the democratic ideals embodied in the first Mambí constitution its legacy.
Only now is a radical change in citizenship with respect to its situation and the demand for its rights beginning to be seen, although it cannot yet be assured that this struggle is structured within a consensual and effectively organized program that involves all Cubans who inside and outside the island wish to finally see the democratic ideals of our founding fathers realized in practice.
José Martí also stated: “A people that submits, perishes.” There is no dilemma, and it seems that Cubans inside the island are beginning to understand this.
By Roberto Jesús Quiñones Haces