Accessing the information in this website constitutes an agreement to interpret and use the information in accordance with the following terms.  

Copyright and Fair Use Notice

This site contains copyrighted material of Cuba Archive / Free Society Project, Inc., the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. This material is being made available on this website in order to advance the understanding of historic, political, and human rights issues. This is believed to constitute a 'fair use' of such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.  It may not be reproduced or transmitted without fully crediting Cuba Archive as its source. If copyrighted material from this site is to be used for other purposes beyond 'fair use', prior permission must be obtained from the copyright owner, Free Society Project, Inc.

Description of Service

By accessing any information in Cuba Archive’s website and/or registering as a user of the database, users understand and agree that the Service is provided on an as is and as available basis. Cuba Archive disclaims all responsibility and liability for the availability, timeliness, security or reliability of the Service. It also reserves the right to modify, suspend or discontinue any aspect of the Service or restrict or terminate any User's right to use all or part of the Service, with or without prior notice, at its sole discretion, and at any time without liability.Cuba Archive offers its Service for informational and educational purposes as well as to advance human rights.

Scope

Cuba Archive reports disappearances and fatalities of a political and military nature believed to have resulted from the Cuban Revolution. Cases that have come to the attention of this project and researched accordingly are considered “documented cases” for the purposes of this Archive. This is a work-in-progress that does not purport to present a complete or comprehensive record of all such disappearances and fatalities. Many more cases are believed to remain unknown and unrecorded.  

The Archive encompasses events onwards from March 10, 1952, date of General Fulgencio Batista's suspension of democratic constitutional rule in Cuba. This is taken to be the beginning of the revolutionary struggle in Cuba and is best known as "the Cuban Revolution.”   

All cases are documented, irrespective of political, ideological, and other attributes or affiliations of the victim. Actions taking place inside or outside the island and affecting Cubans and non-Cubans alike are recorded. For the most part, the work to date includes deaths and disappearances in Cuba. It is believed, however, that the Cuban Revolution has caused many deaths in other countries as a result of military interventions –direct and covert- and the sponsorship, support, and funding by Cuba of subversion in many countries. To date, the database does not include the vast majority of these cases.

Case profiles, also known as “records” in the database, report information systematically as taken from the cited sources; other details of the case are presented in a summarized manner in the “Case Description.”  Oftentimes, available testimonial and archival material for many cases is much more extensive and is part of the Archive.

Accuracy of the data

Cuba Archive stands by its best efforts to collect information that is credible and to interpret and report its findings with the highest standards of objectivity and transparency. Yet, the accuracy of each case record only reflects the precision of the sources from which the information was obtained.  Because the content of this website and its database has been derived from or provided by persons or institutions, those sources, rather than Cuba Archive, are responsible for the information. Cuba Archive provides access to the information as a service to the users and does not take responsibility for such content. It cannot guarantee that any or all details contained in any case record or any of its other reports are true, accurate, or reliable.

Some of this information may be considered offensive, harmful, inaccurate or otherwise inappropriate material, or in some cases it might turn out to be deceptive. Unintentional data entry and classification errors, or mislabeling, are also possible. It is expected that users use caution and common sense and exercise proper judgment when using the material reported by Cuba Archive. Users acknowledge that any reliance on material posted via this website will be at their own risk.

Sources and Conflicts of Evidence

All case records have been derived from information obtained through research of bibliographic material or by way of primary sources -via testimony provided in person or via telephone or in writing. Each record in the database is referenced with all the sources from which the information has been taken.

Different sources often report discrepancies in one or several details of a case; this is especially true for the spelling of names as well as for dates and locations, but at times occurs with respect to other aspects of a case, such as date or location. For informational purposes, discrepancies are noted as “Conflict of evidence.”  In cases where discrepancies are found, the data appearing in the corresponding record has been selected based on Cuba Archive’s best effort to interpret and select from conflicting information. Primary sources are typically prioritized over secondary sources due to greater accuracy stemming from a direct knowledge of the events. Nonetheless, there is no guarantee that data selected to report any given case record is more accurate than equivalent data cited in the "conflict of evidence" section of that record. 

Sources are listed in abbreviated form in each case record, but may be viewed in full detail in the Source Directory. Primary sources are also referenced, but details such as name and contact information are not available to the public to protect the privacy of these sources. Requests from researchers, journalists, and human rights organizations for contact information will be honored on a need basis if authorization for disclosure is obtained.    

In the case of bibliographic sources, certain sources cited in a case record may actually replicate other sources also cited. For this reason, a recurrence of certain discrepancies and errors in those cases does not necessarily make the information in question more accurate. Primary sources are typically given priority when selecting between conflicting reports regarding the details of a case. Nonetheless, it is not necessarily true in all cases that primary sources provide the most accurate data. 

Classification of cases

To facilitate the use and analysis of the data for educational and informational purposes, records have been classified for “Death attribution,” “Cause of death,” and “Victim Type.” Titles under those categories may reflect an attempt to label or narrow down complex information and are not necessarily faithfully descriptive. Several instances follow:

• Death attribution to one or another regime or political faction is decided on the best possible interpretation of the events gleaned from, at times, very limited information. Thus, classification errors are possible and will be corrected as uncovered.
• In Victim Type classified as “armed insurgent or resistance fighter,” the victim may or may not have actually borne arms. Nonetheless, it is generally assumed that members of the resistance have assisted or collaborated in an armed struggle.
• In Cause of Death classified as “Assassinated,” the victim may be presumed to have been killed extrajudicially, but actual empirical evidence may be lacking and/or the body may have not been found or examined. This will be the case, for example, for certain persons in detention reported to have committed suicide in prison, but strongly suspected to have been killed by authorities. Other cases classified as “Assassinated” are likely “extrajudicial executions” if the more technical label is given as per international human rights practices. This would be the case for the killing of persons attempting to flee Cuba by boat or while seeking asylum with a foreign government, as these killings would respond to a state policy. 

Given the difficult of corroborating evidence on most of these cases, due to the closed nature of Cuban society, more precise classifications will probably have to await further investigation and determination.

Occupations are reported in the case records as per standard Occupation categories of the Department of Labor of the United States.