The political analyst Julio Shiling argued this Wednesday that the Constitution of 1940 should be the starting point for the democratic transition in Cuba, not for its literal content, but for its significance as the last democratic constitution of the country and its contribution to the national collective memory.
Shiling, director of Patria de Martí, made these statements in an interview with journalist Tania Costa, days after participating in a forum on the Constitution of 1940 held on June 1 at the Cuban Museum of the Diaspora in Miami.
The analyst proposes a three-stage process. The first stage involves a transitional government that immediately implements transitional justice measures. "The 1940 constitution is an excellent starting point, and after allowing the transitional government to immediately implement transitional justice measures to clear the Castro-communist swamp, it will be able to hold open and competitive elections leading to a constitutional assembly," he explained.
The second stage would be precisely that constituent assembly, elected through free elections, tasked with reviewing which articles of the 1940 text are retained and which are modified.
The third stage would be a popular referendum. "Subsequently, a referendum is held where Cuban society determines whether to accept it or not. That is the most coherent process for societies transitioning to democracy that have just emerged from a communist dictatorship," Shiling stated.
The analyst also refers to those who claim that up to 80% of the articles could be modified or eliminated, but he maintains that this does not invalidate the exercise. "If they tell me 'well, but 80% of it is going to be removed or changed,' that's fine, it will be done this way, but it remains the last democratic constitution and contributes extraordinarily to the purpose of collective memory," he pointed out.
For Shiling, the deeper reason for revisiting that text is the damage caused by decades of totalitarianism. He describes “the psychological, sociological, and anthropological grievance of 67 years of Cuban communism” as a profound disorder in the mindset of society, compounded by what he qualifies as a “sultanistic, highly personalist leadership,” embodied in the Castro family.
That diagnosis is what supports his proposal: "The great disturbance that it has caused to the Cuban mentality would be a mechanism of healing to employ, and from that same constitution to return once again to the leap of the reconstruction of Cuba."
The 1940 Constitution was approved by a democratically elected Constituent Assembly and is considered one of the most progressive constitutions in Latin America of its time, recognizing broad social, labor, and political rights, universal suffrage, and the separation of powers. Its validity was interrupted by Batista's coup in 1952 and was definitively abolished after the triumph of the Castro revolution in 1959.
In the broader context of the interview, Shiling also introduces the concept of militant democracy to prevent the rise of anti-system parties like the Communist Party of Cuba, distinguishing between this and a democratic left that would indeed have a place in a free system.
The debate about the 1940 Constitution as a tool for the democratic transition in Cuba has gained new momentum in exile in 2026, with some factions defending it as a framework of historical legitimacy against those proposing to draft an entirely new text.
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