CUBA CURRENT ELEMENTS
For more than 60 years, the Cuban people have faced an economic, commercial and financial blockade, intensified during the Trump administration with the adoption of 243 additional measures aimed at suffocating the Cuban economy; the entry into force of the Helms-Burton Act and the inclusion of Cuba on the spurious list of state sponsors of terrorism, all of which have been maintained and expanded under the current Biden government. The blockade constitutes the most flagrant violation of the human rights of Cubans and the main limitation for our development.
Deliberately, the United States government has used, in an opportunistic, criminal and immoral way, the limitations imposed by the blockade policy and the effects generated by the Covid-19 pandemic, to generate greater difficulties for our people, hindering access to medicines, supplies and medical equipment, with the deliberate purpose of making the health system collapse and hindering access to fuels and other goods necessary for our development.
To all this is added the application of unconventional warfare methods, with the development of subversive and media campaigns organized and financed from the United States, encouraging hatred, confrontation and vandalism, to generate internal destabilization in the country, distort the work of the Revolution, the performance of the Government and the performance of our leaders.
The riots that occurred on July 11 in Cuba are the results of these illegal and irresponsible actions. Only the response and united action of the majority of our people, put an end to these subversive plans of the enemies of the Revolution.
While the government of the United States, the extreme right in Miami, the anti-Cuban power circles in Congress and the annexationist sectors dream and bet on the “change of regime” in Cuba, the Government, the institutions and social and mass organizations in our country they have been working to confront the Covid-19 pandemic and to promote economic and social development, amid the current complex circumstances.
Fulfilling the agreements, ideas, concepts and guidelines of the 8th. Party Congress, under the leadership of the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Party and President of the Republic of Cuba, Miguel Díaz - Canel Bermúdez, the following actions have been taken:
A fluid dialogue is developed between our authorities and organizations with different sectors of society, in particular with the youth, with whom criteria are exchanged on how to advance economic and social development, with the active participation of all.
It highlights the work that is being developed for the social transformation of neighborhoods and communities, with the active participation of the people; and the advancement of vaccination plans, being the first country to initiate a massive immunization campaign in pediatric ages, with the application of the Cuban Soberanas and Abdala vaccines, a success and pride of our science and research system, committed to its people.
In promoting economic activity, the country continues to adopt decisions that allow a greater strengthening of the state productive sector; unlocking the potential of the country's productive forces, with the approval of micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises; strengthen relations between the different economic actors; energize the agri-food sector, with the adoption of new measures that favor and stimulate producers; promote foreign investment and the participation of Cubans residing abroad in the development of the country.
All this effort is motivated by the deeply humanistic character of the Cuban Revolution, the legacy of the historical generation of the Revolution, the leadership of our leaders and the trust and support of the majority of our people.
With the heroic struggle and resistance of Cuban patriots and Cubans, and with the immense solidarity support of our friends throughout the people, we assure you that, in the face of this new aggressive offensive by the empire, Cuba will win.
Information of interest
On a new resolution against Cuba in the European Parliament, September 16, 2021.
• The presentation, discussion and approval of a new resolution against Cuba in the European Parliament constitutes a flagrant interference in the internal affairs of our country.
• This new act of disrespect towards a sovereign country does not correspond to the will expressed by both parties to preserve and strengthen the Political Dialogue and Cooperation Agreement between Cuba and the European Union, based on the principles of International Law and the Charter of the United Nations.
• With this new anti-Cuban exercise, the European Parliament joins the political, economic and communicational aggression of the United States government against Cuba, and once again becomes a pawn in the multidimensional war that is being waged on us, ignoring the tranquility citizenship and the normal functioning of the country, the broad majority consensus of the people and the practically unanimous international support that we have.
• Before making value judgments about the internal situation in Cuba, MEPs should first address and resolve Human Rights violations that occur in their own States and that, without a doubt, have worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic Among them, the violent police repressions that have taken place in many European capitals, as well as the inhuman, degrading and discriminatory treatment of minorities and migrants.
• Since the beginning of the pandemic caused by COVID-19, Cuba has been receiving numerous offers of solidarity, practical support, donations, often modest, but of enormous symbolic and moral value, which encourage the efforts of our people.
• If the European Parliament had any sincere interest or concern and wanted to alleviate the difficulties of the Cuban people, caused by the policy of the United States government, it could propose to expand and strengthen cooperation with Cuba, as several nations of the world have done without conditions and on the basis of mutual respect, reciprocity and equality; It could urge the Congress of the United States to eliminate the blockade and with it, the more than 243 unilateral coercive measures applied during the Trump administration that are still in force; It could even worry about the effects of the application of Title III of the Helms-Burton Act, which damages the interests of the EU and its natural and legal persons.
• In this complex context and in the face of the permanent hostility of the United States government, MEPs should choose to promote a relationship based on dialogue and on key principles of International Law, which allows preserving, expanding and giving continuity to bilateral relations between Cuba. and the European Union.
• Elementary ethical foundations should lead the European Parliament to support Cuba's efforts to confront the pandemic and not to favor objectives of political aggression against our country in the midst of a situation that has claimed so many lives in Europe and in the world. Your MEPs should recognize that in our case there are two pandemics: the Covid-19 and the blockade. Both suffocate and kill.
• MEPs who try to question and discredit our political system must know that Cuba will never renounce its right to defend itself from aggression, in the way in which it occurs, in accordance with the laws that we have sovereignly given ourselves, with transparency and with strict adherence to the truth. We will respond in an appropriate and measured manner, always based on the consensus of the majority of Cubans, preserving the rights of the people.
On the riots of July 11, 2021.
• In Cuba there was no social outbreak, in the same way that there was no act of repression against our people.
• There were disturbances, disorders on a very limited scale, caused by a communication operation that has been prepared and promoted for a long time by the United States government, opportunistically taking advantage of the difficult conditions that Cubans are experiencing today.
• The forceful response of our people failed the attempt to create a situation that does not exist in Cuba, of ungovernability, of social disorder.
• The United States government has historically dedicated, but particularly in recent years, hundreds of millions of dollars to interfere in the internal affairs of Cuba, to interfere in them; to uselessly try to promote a political opposition at the price of even generating disorder, instability, with the failed purpose of fracturing the constitutional order, social consensus, the conditions of stability, tranquility, citizen security, harmony, in which our people live.
• The United States government identified the impact of the virus and the pandemic as an opportunity to reinforce the blockade with political motives and apply what it called maximum pressure measures to reinforce the aggression against our country.
• It has been a deliberate, cruel, opportunistic attempt to take advantage of the conditions of a pandemic to try to strangle our economy.
• The economic difficulties our country faces today have diverse, multiple implications and dimensions of an objective nature; They affect our solid health system, the supply of electricity, food, medicine, shortages, prices and the difficulties that our people experience every day.
• The resurgence of the policy of encirclement of the United States government, of economic strangulation of our country in the midst of a pandemic, occurs together with an increase in political, media and communication aggression; to an unusual increase in disinformation operations, financed with federal funds from the United States budget that are publicly declared, tens of millions of dollars annually, not counting the hidden funds that are also used in these campaigns.
• The United States government has used powerful and sophisticated high-tech tools, of which it has practically monopoly control and has done so to try to take advantage of the harsh social conditions that the pandemic has generated on the planet and, in our case, also making an impudent, obscene, shameless use of lies, slander and manipulation of data in the attempt to mobilize, summon, incite and manipulate people.
• It is a design with political ends, in which US imperialism has worked for a long time, has accentuated its efforts and has increased its funding in recent years.
• The conduct of the United States government is in violation of international law, it is a threat not only to international law, to freedom of navigation, to the universally accepted norms of free trade, to the rule of law at the level of the international relations system, to the enjoyment of human rights - including the right to peace, to food, to health; the rights of children in Cuba−; it is a tangible, constant, increasing threat to the well-being and integrity of our people.
• For Cuba what is being resolved today is the alternative between the right of an independent, sovereign State, of a nation, of a people to exercise their right to self-determination, to enjoy their human rights without foreign intervention or interference in their internal affairs.
• The alternative of ensuring peace, social cohesion, tranquility, citizen security and stability as a people, in the face of the illegitimate, usurping, illegal and immoral attempt of a superpower that tries to provoke a change of regime, alter the constitutional order that our people voted overwhelmingly in a recent direct, universal and democratic referendum.
• The people of Cuba, in the exercise of their sovereignty, acted together with their Government and judicial bodies in the application of their laws, taking into account international law and the purposes with which, in the field of digital communication, the Governments of the planet have signed the legal instruments.
• The Cuban authorities and in particular the authorities of the internal order, the police authority acted in strict adherence to the law, with absolute respect for the norms that govern their conduct with the minimum of force in the face of vandalism and violent acts that caused injuries to officers. police officers and caused injuries to civilians, Cuban citizens who either opposed said acts or proclaimed their support for the Revolution and the Cuban Government or faced acts of violence or vandalism.
• It is not in Cuba where sophisticated means of repression were used: mechanical equipment, chemical substances, stun explosives, automatic launchers of toxic bombs. That country is not Cuba. It happens every day, however, sometimes even in Europe and very frequently in the United States without much talk about it in the press.
• The judicial treatment of the cases that were detained is complied with in strict adherence to the Constitution and the Cuban substantive and procedural laws and with all the guarantees of due process.
Transparency and legality after the riots of July 11, 2021.
• The Cuban courts of justice have processed the detainees after July 11 with adherence to legality and respect for due process and all the guarantees provided in Cuban legislation. The people who have made themselves available to the courts are those whose conduct has constituted a crime.
• The cases processed respond, basically, to public disorder, instigation to commit a crime, contempt of the authorities, physical and material damage generated by violence.
• There were acts against people, against authorities, against property, not only state, but also personal. Facts of extreme gravity. These are the ones that are being investigated today, determining from the participation of the people who have been arrested, and others who have not but who were called to the processes, with the pertinent evidence.
• At this time, trials are taking place in accordance with the provisions of the law, including the right to defense, to appoint lawyers. For this type of procedure, the law establishes that the subject decides whether or not to appoint a lawyer to defend him at the trial, or he takes care of defending himself. A number of those accused of these alleged crimes have decided to appoint lawyers and have had one, others have not. They have been given every opportunity.
• The trials have been public, those who have wished have been able to witness how they occur. The defendants, in addition to having the possibility of a lawyer, can propose evidence for the analysis of the case. They also have the right to have the last word.
• Most of the people who have been imprisoned were interviewed by prosecutors, which, together with all the action carried out by the Ministry of the Interior, has made it possible to identify motivations, facts and behaviors, in each case.
• Within the law, strict action is taken in the most serious cases, where it is shown that the people organized, promoted or financed the events that affected collective security, legal security and citizen tranquility. Our courts have that responsibility it is part of the criminal law.
• Our law firms throughout the country are kept open, even in this COVID-19 situation. In the current conditions, the lawyers have defended the alleged defendants with all respect and dignity.
• In the judicial processes processed up to now, strict observance of each of these guarantees has been maintained, in particular the right to take evidence and the obligation to demonstrate the responsibility of the accused in the acts charged against them.
• One of the issues that has been manipulated has been the right to defense. In this sense, in crimes punishable by up to one year of deprivation of liberty, and that are processed by municipal courts, the appearance of lawyers is admitted, if the accused concur with them at the time of the oral trial, as established in article 360 of the Criminal Procedure Law. In all cases, the court gave every facility so that the defendants who had the intention of appointing a lawyer were guaranteed that right.
• These are not very summary processes as it has been wanted to manipulate. In judicial jargon we call it 'summary process', and it is the equivalent of 'abbreviated procedure', which can be found in various laws around the world.
• According to our laws, these matters are the competence of the municipal courts, they are settled by procedures, more agile and expeditious, but not exempt from the fulfillment of all guarantees. In some cases, the scheduled time for the trial was even modified, pending the assistance of lawyers.
• In Cuba, diverse opinions, even those of a different political sense, do not constitute crimes. You can think differently, question what the process is being, or manifest. Demonstrating is a constitutional right. The crime is to incite disturbances, disorder, attack, damage, disobey and disobey the instructions that are aimed at preserving order and tranquility.
• There are guarantees and rights that the legislation provides and that have been present, such as the right to provide evidence, both the complainant and the accused; appear with a lawyer, if the accused person considers it; show disagreement with the members of the court, declare or refrain from doing so the accused, the right to "last word", as well as the possibility of establishing an appeal.
• These are processes that do not require legal assistance to establish an appeal, since the sanctioned person himself can, by means of a simple writing, show his dissatisfaction with the ruling and this is enough to raise the proceedings to the higher court.
• Regarding the work of the prosecutors in controlling the investigation of the criminal proceedings after the riots, the facts continue to be evaluated, individualizing the participation of each of the accused and what probative material exists, together with the observance of all guarantees and people's rights, considered as part of due process.
• In recent cases, all the families knew where their detained relatives were, went to the places, handed over personal hygiene items or specific medications; In other words, the information on the whereabouts of people is established and auditable by the control bodies of the Attorney General's Office (FGR), as the body in charge of ensuring legality.
• The elaboration of supposed lists with detained or supposedly disappeared persons since what happened on July 11, loses credibility due to the lack of data on them. It was found that some of those registered on these lists have never been detained or even interviewed by the authorities, or simply did not participate in any way in these events.
• The mechanism established by the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic to receive the concerns of the population is receptive and effective. During 2020, for example, the FGR served more than 129,000 people throughout the country. During the first semester of 2021, the FGR's attention to the population exceeds 49,000 people.
• In the event that there is any complaint, complaint or claim made by citizens in the legal order; including those deprived of liberty, the FGR has the duty to attend to, investigate and respond to them. In cases where it notices violations of the law, those responsible for these, depending on the seriousness of the acts committed, may be criminally charged.
About arrests and alleged disappearances.
• Cuba rejects in the strongest terms the accusations regarding the occurrence of forced disappearances and torture in Cuba.
• Cuba, as a State party to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance and to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, complies with the postulates established in these legal instruments.
• People in Cuba cannot be subjected to forced disappearance, torture or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, as established in Article 51 of the Magna Carta.
• In Cuba there are no missing persons. There were none for the processes referring to recent disorders, or for any other process that has been carried out against any other person for whatever reason.
• There are also no secret establishments to which those who are detained for any reason are taken, and their families and relatives know the detention center where they are.
• Every person who is taken to a police unit, the first thing that is done with it is to register it in a register book, manually, and it is included in an automated register, interlaced between all units. The registries guarantee to know the location of any detained person, anywhere in the country.
• Like enforced disappearances, torture is prohibited in Cuba. The history of the Revolution demonstrates this, and it is not and will not be the practice of the forces of order to use force against the indicted persons.
• The legislation in force in Cuba, including that which governs actions in places of detention, contains universally accepted fundamental guarantees to protect all persons against torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment.
• In Cuba there is and will not be space for impunity, nor laws or regulations that protect it. There are no disappeared or tortured persons, and, if any irregularity occurs or has occurred in the actions of the forces of order, it will be investigated, the results will be made known and, if violations are found, measures will be taken that allow the restitution of legality.
References.
We reiterate our strongest rejection of the statement issued by the High Representative for Foreign Policy of the European Union on Cuba. Statement by Emilio Lozada, director general of Bilateral Affairs of MINREX. June 29, 2021. http://www.cubaminrex.cu/es/reiteramos-el-mas-energico-rechazo-la-declar...
Press conference of the Foreign Minister of Cuba. July 13, 2021. http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2021/07/13/denuncia-canciller-cubano-c...
Press Conference offered by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Cuba, Bruno Rodríguez Parrilla. July 22, 2021. http://www.minrex.gob.cu/es/conferencia-de-prensa-ofrecida-por-el-minist...
Press conference of the Attorney General of the Republic of Cuba, Yamila Peña Ojeda, the president of the Supreme People's Court of the Republic of Cuba, Rubén Remigio Ferro and the president of the Board of Directors of the National Organization of Collective Law Firms, Lilian María Hernandez Doejo. July 24, 2021.
http://www.cubadebate.cu/noticias/2021/07/24/como-avanzan-las-investigac...
How are criminal proceedings going after the recent riots? (+ Video). Article of August 5, 2021.
http://www.granma.cu/pensar-en-qr/2021-08-05/como-marchan-los-procesos-p... 28