1901 Constitution of Cuba

Wood opened the meeting by charging its thirty-one delegates with writing a constitution and formulating the future relationship between the U.S. and Cuba.

[citation needed] The convention's central committee produced a first draft of the constitution in January, and it failed to mention the United States.

[3] In early February the U.S. government expressed its displeasure at the Convention's failure to address the question of Cuban-American relations and its presumption that elections would occur 90 days after the constitution is adopted without giving any consideration, in the words of The New York Times, "as to whether the United States will be satisfied" with the document.

As of early April, in one observer's view, the delegates were divided between "nationalist sentiment" and the "sober judgment" that advised meeting the U.S. demands, and "they continue to beat about the bush for some deliverance from their dilemma, all the time ... drifting slowly but sensible toward an acceptance of the terms of the Platt Amendment.

[9] As late as 1 June 1901, the Convention adopted language that Wood warned would not be acceptable, and U.S. Secretary of State Elihu Root confirmed that rejection.

[13] Cuba removed the Platt Amendment provisions from its constitution on 29 May 1934, as part of a new understanding of relations with the United States under the Good Neighbor policy of the administration of Franklin Roosevelt.