Death Penalty

Cuba's death penalty is usually carried out by firing squad but Cuba is ceasing the fire. Past Monday, new Cuban President Raul Castro announced that all death sentences had been commuted to prison terms of 30 years to life, with the exception of 3 people charged with terrorism.

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. Some of them have been awaiting execution for more than 10 years.

"This decision was not undertaken because of pressure, but as a sovereign act in line with the humanitarian and ethical conduct that has characterized the Cuban revolution from the start," said Raul Castro. He also noted that party leader Fidel Castro supports -when favorable conditions exist- the elimination of the death penalty for any type of crime and opposes the extrajudicial methods that some well-known countries shamelessly practice. He clarified that this agreement by the Council of State does not mean the elimination of capital punishment in the Cuban Penal Code, noting that under current circumstances the country dismantle itself before an empire that has not ceased to harass and attack the island.

Just 3 people have been executed since 2000, all of them involved in a failed 2003 boat hijacking. Now 3 men remained in death row: 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. While 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.

Cuba's penal code 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. Capital punishment was also 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. 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.

Since taking over from his ailing brother Fidel Castro in February, Raul Castro has lifted a number of restrictions on daily life, from owning cell phones to entering tourist hotels. Cuba in early March signed 2 important United Nations human rights agreements long opposed by Fidel Castro.

While Cuba seems to be moving forward, on the other hand the U.S is failing to comply with international agreements and it is reinstating the death penalty. What would happen if Cuba abolishes the death penalty before the United States? The U.S. criticizes Cuba for all the human rights violations that still persists in the Island but if Cuba abolishes the death penalty it would be one step ahead of the U.S. I am not saying Cuba's problems and human rights violations have suddenly disappear and I know some things are not as they appear; we still need to be on the look out for Cuba's human rights infringements. What I'm saying is that the U.S. proud itself for being a democratic country which protects human rights but a socialist country is doing the right thing, commuting death sentences, while the U.S. is stuck in prehistoric practices like the capital punishment.

~Tania, DPAC intern