DEATH PENALTY-CUBA:
Dissidents, Preachers
Welcome Decision
By Patricia Grogg
HAVANA (IPS) -
Cuban President Raúl
Castro’s announcement
that virtually all death
sentences would be
commuted to terms of 30
years to life was
welcomed Tuesday by
social sectors calling
for the abolition of
capital punishment.
The Cuban government
does not generally
provide statistics on
the prison population or
the number of people
facing the death
sentence. But Elizardo
Sánchez, president of
the dissident Cuban
Commission for Human
Rights and National
Reconciliation, said
that according to his
group’s estimates,
around 30 people on
death row will benefit
from the decision.
"It is a gesture that
merits our support and I
am sure that as we move
towards a climate of
mutual respect in
international relations,
capital punishment will
be completely
eliminated," Reverend
Raúl Suárez told IPS.
The Baptist preacher
holds a seat in the
Cuban parliament, where
he has publicly spoken
out against the death
penalty. "Neither in
Cuba nor anywhere else
in the world does this
punishment effectively
fight crime," said
Suárez, who is the
director of the
ecumenical Martin Luther
King Jr. Memorial Centre
(CMMLK).
In a speech published by
the ruling Communist
Party newspaper Granma
Tuesday, Castro
announced that a group
of prisoners facing the
death penalty, some of
whom have been waiting
for years for a
pronouncement by the
Council of State, will
now serve life sentences
or 30-year terms
instead.
Life imprisonment will
apply to those who
committed their crimes
after the life sentence
was adopted as an
alternative to the death
penalty in the 1999
modification of the
penal code, while those
who committed their
crimes prior to the
reforms will have their
sentences commuted to 30
years in prison.
Orlando Márquez,
director of the magazine
Palabra Nueva, put out
by the Roman Catholic
archdiocese of Havana,
said the announcement
was "very good news and
a bold and mature step
by the Cuban Council of
State, taking into
account how deeply
rooted support for this
kind of punishment is
among a large part of
Cuban society."
"Any gesture of clemency
and respect for life, of
which this is one
example, exalts, rather
than weakens, the state
that makes it," said
Márquez.
In his view, Cuban
society has other legal
instruments that work
just as well in terms of
protecting the country’s
citizens and
guaranteeing public
order, without the need
to punish people by
putting them to death.
The decision reaffirms
the de facto moratorium
on the death penalty in
place since 2000, which
was only interrupted in
2003 by the execution of
three men who hijacked a
passenger ferry to
attempt to sail to the
United States.
The executions drew
cries of outrage from
the international
community as well as
criticism within Cuba.
"Many people disagreed
because although what
they (the hijackers) did
was bad, they didn't
kill anyone," retired
high school teacher
Digna Martínez told IPS.
"I think they should
have been kept in
prison, like these
prisoners will be now,
rather than shot by a
firing squad."
Castro said the death
penalty was handed down
in the 2003 passenger
ferry case to cut short
a wave of more than 30
attempted and planned
hijackings of boats and
planes, "encouraged by
U.S. policy."
The decades-old conflict
with Washington was thus
once again blamed for
the decision not to
completely do away with
capital punishment, with
Castro stating that
under the present
circumstances, "we
cannot disarm ourselves
in the face of an empire
that continues to harass
and attack us."
Castro said that "in all
these years, there have
been 713 acts of
terrorism against Cuba,
56 of which have
occurred since 1990,
organised and financed
from U.S. territory,
leaving a total of 3,478
people dead and 2,099
injured and disabled."
He added that although
the death penalty
remains on the books,
"Cuba understands and
respects the arguments
of the international
movement advocating its
elimination or a
moratorium," and said
that "for this reason
our country has not
voted against such
initiatives in the
United Nations."
"We have been forced to
choose, in legitimate
defence, the route of
establishing and
enforcing severe laws
against our enemies, but
always strictly within
the framework of the law
and with respect for
legal guarantees,"
Castro said Monday at
the closing session of
the sixth plenary
session of the Communist
Party Central Committee.
Observers described as
"highly significant" the
choice of venue for
making the announcement.
"Socialism must be based
on moral considerations,
above all, and if we
examine things from
another point of view,
to some extent we are
all responsible for what
other people do," said
Raymundo García, the
founder of the Christian
Centre for Reflection
and Dialogue, a Cuban
civil society
organisation in the city
of Cárdenas, 150
kilometres east of
Havana.
"The death penalty is
not a solution, but part
of the problem," the
Baptist preacher told
IPS.
With respect to the
prisoners who will have
their sentences
commuted, Sánchez said
that "some have been
awaiting execution for
more than 10 years.
Reacting with little
enthusiasm to Castro’s
announcement, the
dissident leader told
IPS that "what would be
truly meaningful would
be the immediate
abolition of capital
punishment, because
otherwise the risk of it
being applied remains
latent."
But other dissidents
said that was unlikely
to happen. "I would say
this is virtually a
permanent de facto
moratorium. I think it
is improbable that after
making this public
commitment, a sentence
of this kind would be
carried out again," said
Manuel Cuesta Morúa,
spokesman for the
moderate opposition
coalition Arco
Progresista.
Castro also mentioned
the case of three men on
death row whose appeals,
he said, would be
reviewed soon by Cuba’s
Supreme Court:
Salvadoran nationals
Raúl Ernesto Cruz and
Otto René Rodríguez, who
were sentenced to death
in 1999, and Cuban
citizen Humberto Eladio
Real.
The two Salvadoran
citizens were convicted
of carrying out a string
of terrorist bombings in
tourism establishments
in Havana in the summer
of 1997, one of which
resulted in the death of
an Italian businessman.
The Cuban citizen, Real,
was arrested in 1994
after illegally landing
in Cuba and murdering a
man in order to steal
his car. He was
sentenced for crimes
against the security of
the state, homicide and
the illegal use of
firearms.
Capital punishment is
reserved in Cuba for the
most serious cases of
homicide, rape, sexual
abuse of minors
involving violence,
robbery involving
violence and
intimidation, and crimes
in which corruption
serves as an aggravating
factor.
The penal code also
establishes the death
penalty for crimes
against the country’s
external security,
including acts aimed at
undermining its
independence or
territorial integrity,
the promotion of armed
actions against Cuba,
aiding the enemy, and
espionage.
In addition, the penal
code chapter that
addresses crimes against
the country’s internal
security stipulates the
use of this punishment
for offences like
rebellion, sedition,
usurpation of political
or military leadership,
sabotage and terrorism.
But the death penalty
cannot be applied in the
case of people under 20
or women who were
pregnant at the time the
crime was committed or
when the sentence was
handed down. In
practice, no woman has
been executed since the
1959 revolution.
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