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WHAT RIGHT DOES THE CUBAN GOVERNMENT HAVE TO NATIONALIZE?

As soon as Fulgencio Batista took power in 1952, he suspended the Constitution of 1940, one of the most progressive in the Americas at the time. But no soon the Revolutionary Government took power it established the Fundamental Law of the Republic of 1959 which took up the cardinal points of the 1940 Constitution.

The first measures of popular restoration taken by the Revolutionary Government of Cuba were directed towards ending the large land holdings that were suffocating the economy, surrender the land to those who work it and liquidate the semi-feudal agrarian agreements with foreign oligarchies in Cuban territory. For this all the Cuban Revolution had to do was to fulfill old constitutional precepts that previous governments left dormant for years, in cooperation with a national oligarchy and foreign consortiums.

One need to remember that the 1940 Constitution made large landholdings illegal, but there was never a complementary law for its execution. Article 24 of the 1940 Constitution established the expropriation for reasons of public utility and national interests, but again there was no complimentary law to reinforce it. Thus Article 90 on the 1940 Constitution states:

"Large land holdings are not permitted, and on their disappearance the Law will determine the size granted to each individual or institution for each type of use taking into account the respective peculiarities...

The Third Transitory Clause of Article 4th of the 1940 Constitution states:

"In the case of the mandatory expropriation that will take place to bring about the realization of the Agrarian Reform and its consequent distribution of land, it will not be necessary that previous payment should be made in cash. The Law will be able to establish methods of payment...

Law number 851 established on July 6, 1960 that follows article 24th of the Fundamental Law of the Republic of 1959 which took up the expropriation for reasons of public utility of the similar article of the 1940 Constitution is the natural and historical revindication of that Constitution. To deny that the Revolution is a source of legal rights would be tantamount of denying that in 1787 the Founding Fathers of the United States of America approved its Republican Constitution and thus proclaimed George Washington as its President who had led them to their victory over the colonizing English; or deny the principles of Freedom, Equality and Fraternity of the French Revolution which gave birth to a New Era for Humanity, or deny the well founded social transformations of the Russian Revolution, or deny the Revolution headed by Bolivar in our America; or the countless revolutions carried out by people in their effort to liberate themselves from years of slavery and oppression.

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