EUROPE
Wednesday, Terraviva 12 April 2006 DEATH PENALTY-CUBA: NO ABOLITION IN SIGHT by Patricia Grogg HAVANA (IPS) - A new de facto moratorium on the death penalty in Cuba, since the last three executions took place in 2003, does not seem to indicate that capital punishment will disappear any time soon in this socialist Caribbean island nation. Tuesday marked the third anniversary of the application of the death penalty in the case of three Cubans who hijacked a ferry carrying dozens of passengers, including four foreign tourists, in an attempt to reach the United States in April 2003. The hijackers, who had threatened to kill their hostages, were executed after a summary trial in which they were found guilty under a 2001 law on terrorism. The executions drew widespread condemnation, even from international figures who have been staunch supporters of the government of Fidel Castro, as well as in Cuba, where capital punishment tends to be accepted in the case of serious crimes like murder or the rape of minors. A few days after the executions, Castro himself acknowledged the political costs of the drastic measure that was aimed at curbing a wave of hijackings of boats and aircraft by people keen on making it to the United States. Even before the executions, "It pained us to hurt many of our friends and a large number of people around the world, whose sensitivity towards the death penalty, arising from religious, humanistic and philosophical motives, we are familiar with, and in many aspects share," said Castro at the time. Among the personalities who lashed out against the executions were Uruguayan writer Eduardo Galeano and Portuguese novelist and Nobel Literature Prize-winner Jos Saramago, who as a result qualified his support for the Cuban revolution. The executions broke the de facto moratorium on capital punishment in effect in Cuba since 2000, in line with a call issued to that effect by the UN high commission on human rights on the suggestion of UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan. In mid-November 2001, Castro publicly stated that a group of legal experts was studying alternatives to the death penalty. "We have other ideas that will enable us one day, by our own decision, to abolish capital punishment," the president said on that occasion.
Years before, in 1992, the Cuban leader had remarked at the Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil that his government was willing to sign a multilateral treaty on the abolition of the death penalty, but would not eliminate the punishment on its own, because "it is a tool in the struggle against those intent on destroying our country." In Cuba's criminal code, the death penalty is applicable to a number of crimes if aggravating factors are present, although it cannot be applied in the case of people under 20 or to women who were pregnant at the time the crime was committed or when the sentence is handed down. Cuban law also stipulates that those convicted of a crime have the right to appeal to the Supreme Court. If the sentence is upheld, it must then be ratified by the Council of State (the highest government body), which has the last word. In practice, the death sentence has never been applied against a woman since a law was passed in 1959 to reestablish the use of capital punishment, which was later incorporated into the 1976 Socialist Constitution. The 1940 constitution in effect when Castro took power specifically banned the death sentence, although capital punishment was allowed in the case of "members of the armed forces for crimes of a military nature and persons guilty of treason or committing espionage for the enemy in times of war with a foreign nation." At present, the Cuban government stresses that the death sentence is only handed down in "exceptional" circumstances, and is kept on the books as a judicial weapon that can be used by the country to defend itself from both external attack and potential internal activities aimed at destroying the state. It is also maintained protect to the population from the most heinous crimes. "The possible abolition of capital punishment in Cuba would be linked to a cease in the policy of hostility, terrorism and economic, commercial and financial warfare to which its people have been subjected for over 40 years by the United States," the Cuban Foreign Ministry told the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in 2004. With regard to crimes against life and physical integrity, the Cuban Criminal Code establishes the death penalty for 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. Article 2 of the Criminal Code establishes the application of the death penalty for crimes against the countrys external security, including acts aimed at undermining its independence or territorial integrity, the promotion of armed actions against Cuba, aiding the enemy, and espionage. Chapter II, which addresses crimes against the countrys internal security, stipulates the use of this punishment for offences like rebellion, sedition, usurpation of political or military leadership,
sabotage and terrorism. In February 1999, a Criminal Code reform introduced life imprisonment as an alternative sentence to capital punishment. "Right now there are around 50 people either sentenced to, or eligible for, the death sentence," opposition leader Elizardo Snchez told IPS. Snchez is the president of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation, an opposition group that has no legal status but is tolerated by the Cuban government. His list includes Salvadorans Ral Ernesto Cruz Len and Otto Ren Rodrguez Llerena, who were sentenced to death for terrorism in 1998. Cruz Len and Rodrguez Llerena whose sentences are currently pending a Supreme Court appeal took part in a number of bombings of tourist facilities in Cuba. One of these explosions resulted in the death of Fabio Di Celmo, an Italian residing in Havana. The death sentence has also yet to be applied against Humberto Eladio Real Surez, who was arrested on Oct. 15, 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. There have been various periods over the past decades when Cubas use of capital punish...