Page:British and Foreign State Papers, vol. 144 (1952).djvu/394

370 5. For the purposes of article 75 of this Constitution, in each Municipal District of the Republic there shall be founded by the Municipal Government a co-operative for distribution of lands and houses, denominated “José Marti”, for the purpose of acquiring arable lands and constructing cheap houses for poor farmers, workmen and employees who do not already own them.

These co-operatives shall be under the supervision of the Government of the Republic and shall be governed and administered by their co-operators, with representation of the Municipality, the Province and the Nation, and under the chairmanship of the representative of the last-named; but these representatives cannot of themselves decide any ballot.

The funds of these co-operatives shall be constituted principally by the amount contributed by the Nation, the Province, the Municipality and the small quotas of the co-operators fixed by law; by the reimbursement of the capital invested in agricultural implements, seeds, houses and lots awarded; by the other contributions that the co-operative resolves upon; and by any donations made to it.

Cuban farmers, workers and employees who meet the requisites fixed by law can be co-operators.

The arable lands acquired shall be awarded to the farmer co-operators, by means of drawings, in lots of not more than three caballerias (approximately 100 acres) in the Provinces of Las Villas, Camagüey and Oriente; of two, in the Provinces of Pinar del Rio and Matanzas; and of one, in the Province of Havana. The awards shall be made by virtue of payment of the amounts, at their cost price, without interest, of the seeds, agricultural implements, and lots, in a period of not more than 25 years, the interested party ceasing to pay his co-operative quota as soon as he cancels his indebtedness and acquires his title of ownership. The houses shall be awarded to workers and employees of the cities in the same manner and under the same conditions as the lots are awarded to the farmers.

The period of functioning of these co-operatives shall be 25 years, but if experience shows that it is advisable for the interests of the nation, Congress can modify their structure, suppress them in whole or in part, or extend the period; and in the case of definitive cessation of a co-operative, its holdings shall be proportionally returned to the bodies which furnished them.