Cuban dictatorship’s crimes against humanity & state-sponsored terrorism cannot remain unpunished

(Interamerican Institute for Democracy) Chieftains and operators of Cuba’s dictatorship are -flagrantly- committing crimes against humanity and state-sponsored terrorism against a defenseless civilian population. These are criminal acts, announced, confessed and claimed by the perpetrators who are known and whose crimes are documented by the citizenry and the international press. The insurance for the Castroist dictatorship and its institutionalized henchmen is impunity, something that democracies and the whole international system have the obligation to change by singling-out the authors so that crimes against humanity and state-sponsored terrorism are punished.

Crimes against humanity are all of “those especially heinous crimes and crimes of an inhumane nature, that are part of a widespread or systematic attack directed against any civilian population, committed in furtherance of a State or organizational policy”. Among these crimes are; persecution, a person’s forcible disappearance due to arrest or kidnapping, imprisonment, rape, torture, deportation, slavery, terrorism, assassination, and any other inhuman act against any civilian population.

State-sponsored terrorism consists in “the use of illegitimate methods by a government, which are aimed to produce fear or terror in the civilian population in order to reach its objectives or promote behaviors that otherwise would not occur by themselves”. The “use of coercion or illegitimate persecution, kidnapping, forcible disappearance, torture, assassination, extra-judicial execution, to direct or induce troops to act in like manner that causes terror in the civilian population” and more, are considered State-sponsored terrorism. State-sponsored terrorism is a crime against humanity. There is State-sponsored terrorism “when those who govern or hold power systematically repress the population to be able to subjugate it through fear, preventing any act of resistance to the oppression”.

In response to the peaceful demonstrations of the Cuban people that started on 11 July 2021 asking for FREEDOM, HOMELAND AND LIFE, dictator Miguel Diaz-Canel made a public apology for the crimes against humanity that he directed to occur against the civilian population, calling on [governmental troops (sic)] to “combat” against the unarmed population. That public crime, along with all individuals who comprise the Cuban dictatorship’s inner circle -Raul Castro included- has produced and continues to produce the perpetration of beatings, undue arrests, kidnapping, extortion, raids, forcible disappearances, imprisonment, summary trials without the right to defense, torture, assassinations, and more.

The elimination of the internet is part of State-sponsored terrorism that is being committed by heads and operators of Cuba’s dictatorship. This is widely documented as proof of flagrant crimes, along with the beatings, undue arrests, and assassinations by operators infiltrated as civilian protesters in the peaceful massive demonstrations in order to break them apart, terrorize the people and implant fear and terror. Besides the institutionalized henchmen that commit these crimes disguised as civilians, the dictatorship is also attacking the population with special troops that have been directed to “instill terror in the population”.

People’s houses, that fall in the category of “inviolable” have been the object of violent unlawful searches by armed officials who have caused wounded or assassinated, filling the elderly, women, and children with terror, as documented by several citizen’s personal videos. Cuba’s dictatorship is instilling terror, looking for anyone they are able to identify to be participating in the peaceful demonstrations, searching their homes with violence, jailing them, causing physical harm to the victims and extreme trauma to their family.

The security blanket for the masterminds, the perpetrators and their accomplices who commit these crimes against humanity and State-sponsored terrorism in Cuba, rests on the impunity that, for over 62 years, all members of the regime enjoy. Fidel Castro died unpunished, he was never brought to justice for the assassinations, torture, executions by firing squads, imprisonments, and the terrorism system he implanted in Cuba and neither for the multiple attacks, conspiracies, guerrillas, trafficking in narcotics, and sedition efforts he orchestrated in the Americas and the world. The label of “revolution” was useful for Castro to keep his heinous crimes against humanity impune. History is condemning him, and the more time passes by, his condemnation is harder and more definitive as the 11th of July of 2021 prove it.

It is now urgent to individualize the perpetrators, accomplices, and enablers of all crimes against humanity that are taking place in Cuba. Democratic leaders and the international system have the obligation to ensure these crimes are punished.

*Attorney & Political Scientist. Director of the Interamerican Institute for Democracy.

Translated from Spanish by; Edgar L. Terrazas, member of the American Translators Association, ATA # 234680.