HAVANA.- Cuba will experience from today a transcendental political and democratic exercise which success will depend, in the first place, on the active and committed participation of Cuban people, as Army General Raul Castro described the popular consultation on the Draft Constitution of the Republic of Cuba.

Today many people celebrate worldwide the 92nd birthday of Commander in Chief Fidel Castro, so there couldn´t be a better day to begin such an important process, scheduled until November 15, during which millions of Cubans identified with the postulates exposed by him in the concept of Revolution will provide ideas in order to perfect the Magna Carta in reform.

According to historian and deputy Dr. Eduardo Torres Cuevas, "there has not been any other country to put in the hands of a people the determination of the content of its fundamental law."

The sale in recent days of more than one million papers and their availability on the websites of institutions and media allowed access to the Draft Constitution even in the remotest places of the Cuban archipelago.

More than 135.000 meetings are planned throughout the country, the first of which will take place today, with the exception that in August they will only cover work places and the community, because educational centers are on vacation, without forgetting that Cuban living abroad will be able to give their opinion because the country also calls them.

"It is about the whole population feeling part of the process, and assume it with the greatest responsibility, because the document will trace out the main lines from the legal, economic, political and social point of view that will govern the ordering of society", as deputy Yumil Rodriguez, member of the Commission in charge of the Constitutional Reform, told the press.

The training of more than 7.600 duos chosen to lead the meetings is another key to success, as they will not only collect the ideas or proposals of the population, but clarify doubts, especially when the Magna Carta deals with items of personal interest and life projects.

Although last July 21 and 22, the deputies of the National Assembly of People´s Power with their plurality of criteria enriched -and passed- the Draft Constitution, it will be the people who will legitimize its content, first in the political and democratic process that begins today, and then in a popular referendum.