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The second matter is a sensitive and even controversial one. This morning, at the proposal of the Political Bureau, the Council of State decided to commute the death sentences for a group of convicts.

Life sentences will be applied to them instead, except those who committed their crimes before this sentence was established in our Penal Code, whose sentences will be 30 years in prison. Some convicts have been waiting several years for a decision by the Council of State.

This situation is mainly the result of the policy in force since the year 2000 of not applying the death penalty, a policy that was interrupted only in April 2003 to put a complete stop to the wave of more than 30 attempts and plots to hijack airplanes and vessels, encouraged by the policies of the United States, which had just begun its war on Iraq.

Most of the convicts committed the most serious common crimes, fundamentally life-threatening ones. They are crimes that, if we were to bring them back to trial, would make it hard for us not to hand down the same sentence. We also know that the majority opinion of our people in such cases is for maintaining it.

The appeals of three defendants are pending for processing in the People’s Supreme Court, and will be considered shortly.

One Salvadoran and one Guatemalan, for terrorist attacks with bombs on hotels in 1997, one of which caused the death of the Italian tourist Fabio di Celmo, both of them financed and directed by the notorious criminal Luis Posada Carriles, who is freely walking the streets of Miami.

There is also the Cuban from the United States, mastermind of the assassination of Arcilio Rodríguez García, which occurred during the infiltration of an armed terrorist commando in the area of Caibarién.

Within our prerogatives, it may only be affirmed that the final decision of the Council of State will not be in contradiction with the policy formerly expressed — I am referring to the three abovementioned cases.

REVOLUTIONARY CUBA HAS NOT KNOWN A SINGLE CASE OF TORTURE, DISAPPEARANCE, EXTRAJUDICIAL EXECUTION OR SECRET PRISONS

This decision has been adopted not on account of pressure, but as a sovereign act, in harmony with the humanitarian and ethical conduct that has characterized the Cuban Revolution from the start, inspired always by a spirit of justice and not vengeance, and knowing, moreover, that comrade Fidel is in favor of the abolition of the death penalty for any type of crime, when the appropriate conditions exist, and is opposed to the extrajudicial methods that certain countries are known to use with impunity.

This does not mean that we are removing capital punishment from the Penal Code. On different occasions, we have talked about this issue, and the opinion has always prevailed that under the current circumstances, we cannot disarm ourselves in face of an empire that is constantly harassing and attacking us.

Terrorism against Cuba has enjoyed total impunity in the United States. It is truly state terrorism.

Let us not forget that in 1959, when we abolished it [the death penalty], in a certain way it acted as an incentive for committing acts against the Revolution by those who thought that our process would be an ephemeral one, and that prison would enable them to make themselves out as heroes for a future Yankee administrator.

Our enemies promoted dozens of gangs of rebels who plunged our people into mourning, murdering young literacy volunteers and farmers; they launched pirate attacks; sabotaged important economic sectors, and engaged in hundreds of plots to assassinate our leaders, especially against the top leader of the Revolution.

It would be naïve and irresponsible to relinquish the dissuasive effect of the death penalty on the real mercenary terrorists in the service of the empire, because it would endanger the lives and security of our people.

Throughout these years, 713 acts of terrorism have been committed against Cuba, 56 of them since 1990, organized and financed from within the United States, resulting in a total of 3,478 deaths and 2,099 people disabled.

We have been forced to choose, in our legitimate defense, the path of establishing and implementing strict laws against our enemies, but always adhering to the strictest legality and with respect for judicial guarantees.

Revolutionary Cuba has not known a single case of torture, disappearance, extrajudicial execution or secret prisons, while, as you all know, in some of the self-professed democratic governments that have abolished or maintained the death penalty and criticize us, these situations occur frequently.

Some of them, moreover, allow secret flights by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency over their territory, carrying prisoners to different torture centers, but then they throw their hands up in horror when we apply our laws.

While our legislation provides for the death penalty, due to the specific reasons that have been more than explained and justified, Cuba understands and respects the arguments of the international movement that proposes its abolition or a moratorium. That is why our country has not voted against such resolutions in the United Nations.

We are sure that our people, including the victims’ families, will understand the reasons that this decision is based on, as further evidence of the strength of the Revolution.

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