Is a Debate on the Death Penalty Necessary in Cuba?
HAVANA TIMES – On August 24, the people of Ciego de Avila woke up to the alarming news that two “high-risk” inmates had escaped from Canaleta prison. That penitentiary is located roughly halfway between the cities of Ciego de Ávila and Moron, home to two-thirds of the province’s residents.
One of the fugitives was serving a 28-year sentence for homicide and other crimes; his accomplice had been sentenced to 16 years for violent offenses, illegal possession of weapons, and robbery.
The escape and the real possibility that they had hidden in the vicinity of Ceballos caused particular alarm in that small community in the municipality of Ciro Redondo. Exactly one year earlier, the town had been shaken by the murder of two women, a teenager, and a four-year-old child. Although the murderer had been arrested two days later, a sense of insecurity has lingered ever since.
The manhunt ended with the capture of the escapees a couple of days later. But the incident reignited the debate on the need for greater security in Cuban prisons and whether the death penalty should be reinstated. Although the perpetrator of the Ceballos crime has yet to be tried, many locals fear his trial will end like a similar case in Matanzas in August 2023.
There, a married couple and their seven-year-old son were murdered during a robbery at their home. In a display of refined sadism, after the triple murder the criminal got drunk beside the victims’ corpses and slept in the couple’s bed. In the end, the courts sentenced him to life imprisonment, despite widespread public demand for the death penalty.
“Raul [Castro] said years ago that the death penalty remains in force in the penal code and would be applicable in special cases. But it was never said what those cases would be. This man escaped it, and if the courts continue with that reasoning, the one who killed the two women and two children in Ceballos will also be spared, since the coldness, motive, and methods of both crimes were almost the same,” a reader commented on the pro-government website Cubadebate, under the report in January of this year on the Matanzas case.
Legislated, But Not Applied
Few issues reveal as clearly the contradictions between the Cuban people and their government.
Formally, the authorities defend the relevance of the death penalty, which in 2022 was restored to prominence within the new Penal Code. In fact, they increased the number of crimes for which it can be imposed, and while the bill was being debated in parliament, they allowed rumors to spread that the moratorium on executions in place since 2003 might be lifted.
As now, at that time public opinion leaned toward applying the death penalty for exceptionally violent crimes, drug trafficking, and offenses involving minors.
Barely two years earlier, in early 2020, a case in Santiago had caused widespread outrage: an HIV-positive man raped and beat an eight-year-old girl, then threatened to kill her and her family if she told anyone. When the crime was discovered, dozens of people tried to lynch him, stopped only by an aggressive police intervention and the vague promise that he would face “the full rigor of the law.” In the following months, pro-government social media accounts suggested that all options—including capital punishment—were on the table, insisting the case merited it.
But as would later happen with the Matanzas family murders and other notorious cases of violence, the courts limited themselves to imposing life imprisonment. Not even the perpetrators of multiple murders of police officers and other public officials in recent years have been sentenced to death.
A Tool of Political Repression
“There is no place where it has been proven that the death penalty has a special effectiveness in reducing crime […] It is often used as an instrument of political repression, imposed and carried out arbitrarily,” states an Amnesty International report.
That organization, one of the most active against judicial executions, has long denounced the discriminatory bias that characterizes most capital punishment cases. According to its research, in countries with the highest number of death sentences, common abuses include lack of adequate legal representation, violation of procedural safeguards, and the use of torture or coercion to obtain confessions. Furthermore, “the threat of the death penalty is often used as a tool of pressure, especially against political dissidents.”
These descriptions largely apply to Cuba, where since 2021 threats against opponents have multiplied. There has even been talk of applying the harshest penalties in the Penal Code for alleged acts against state security. “The authorities use state-run media to intimidate people and dissuade them from protesting against the government by threatening severe sentences. This tactic is not new, but a recurring strategy,” explained Cubalex executive director Laritza Diversent.
Her US-based judicial observatory issues monthly reports on human rights in Cuba. The most recent highlight a troubling increase in punitive rhetoric in official discourse, particularly references to life imprisonment and the death penalty as possible responses to citizen dissent. This rhetorical shift is especially alarming given the weaknesses of Cuba’s judicial system, which is entirely subordinated to the political apparatus.
According to Diversent, the death penalty will not be abolished in Cuba while the current government remains in power and could be applied politically if popular opposition grows. “Capital punishment is a tool of social control used to inhibit and punish those who do not comply with the government’s decisions,” she said in an interview. “The threat of the death penalty is also a way of telling the population it can be used as a warning to others.”
The State Comes First
For now, judicial executions seem to remain a red line for the Cuban government and its penal system. Reasons include the need to maintain good relations with the European Union and the Vatican, two of the strongest international opponents of the death penalty. However, foreign policy considerations are not strong enough to remove from the Penal Code such a powerful tool of intimidation, especially given the criticism from a large segment of the population.
On the other side of the spectrum is almost the entire academic community. Their stance can be summarized in an article published earlier this year by Dr. Walter Mondelo, professor at the University of Oriente: “While most countries in the world have advanced in recent decades toward abolishing the death penalty, Cuba’s Penal Code goes against the tide by maintaining it, and even expanding it […] The death penalty is the ultimate expression of cruel, inhuman, and degrading punishment […] Moreover, the best socialist thought since the 19th century has consistently defended its abolition.”
This is not a position the Cuban government is willing to adopt—especially not amid the current economic and social crisis, which has translated into rising violence and even acts of sabotage. For example, in 2025 alone more than a dozen train derailments have been recorded, causing nearly fifty injuries and millions in damages to tracks and train cars.
“Excluding two or three accidents due to infrastructure problems or human error, the rest all point to intentionality. The latest major derailment, in Camagüey in May, which injured 18 people and completely destroyed three passenger cars, was caused by the theft of bolts and other rail fasteners. The culprits were young men around 20 years old, who later admitted they had been paid ‘over the internet’ to do it. Only a miracle prevented fatalities, but if there had been deaths, surely many would have demanded the execution of those responsible,” commented a Cuban Railways official in Camagüey.
Capitalizing on the unease caused by these events, the Supreme Court announced in May a reinterpretation of the crime of sabotage. It now includes acts of vandalism against public service infrastructure, which judges may punish with the death penalty.
This measure represents a hardening of the official stance and, above all, confirms the political nature of Cuba’s justice system. Of the 24 crimes for which the law allows execution, 14 are directly related to state security, and only two address issues that could be considered purely social (drug trafficking and murder).
The message is clear: under Cuban law, the priority remains the “protection” of the State—even above its citizens.