EXECUTIONS BY FIRING SQUAD NOTHING NEW IN CUBA

For immediate release.

May 2003, Washington, DC.  On April 11th, the Cuban government executed three men accused of hijacking a ferry.  Worldwide outrage and condemnation have been reported, a welcome development.  But, the brutal nature of the Castro regime is not news.  Thousands of its victims have written this tragic story for over 44 years.  Close to 6,000 executions for political reasons have been independently documented, a figure believed lower than the actual number.

On April 2nd a group of ten hijacked a ferry with 50 passengers in an attempt to flee Cuba for the United States.   A standoff of one day ended without violence, although the hijackers were reportedly armed with one pistol and several knives. On April 8th, the three ringleaders -Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Barbaro Leodan Sevilla García and Jorge Luis Martínez Isaac- were sentenced to death for acts of terrorism in secret summary trials, in total disregard of due process of law.   Less than three days later they were executed by firing squad, their families notified only after the bodies had been buried under cement.  Seven alleged co-conspirators received prison sentences ranging from life to three years.

The executions were believed to be the first in three years. In its four decade long reign in power, however, the Cuban Communist government has executed thousands in its effort to crush opposition. A documentation effort led by Dr. Armando Lago, the Truth Recovery Archive on Cuba, is recording the loss of life resulting from the Cuban Revolution. It reports executions of eighteen men who, from 1961 to 1992, attempted to flee the country by boat, most without resorting to force or violence. In 1963, for example, the New York Times reported that three Protestant ministers left Cuba by boat as part of a group of nineteen. They arrived at Anguilla Key, Bahamas, where the Cuban Coast Guard staged a raid.  Returned to Cuba, Reverends José Durado, Pablo Rodríguez and Antonio González were swiftly executed for exiting the country illegally.
 
Cuba’s Penal Code establishes the death penalty, delivered by firing squad, for a large number of causes that include numerous acts against state security, including hijacking.  The Penal Code also declares illegal entry to and exit from the national territory as crimes punishable with prison. The Truth Recovery Archive on Cuba has documented the assassination of 73 people, including children, caught while attempting to flee the country by sea.  Cuban patrols have machine gunned the escapees or rammed their vessels, drowning them. Many more anecdotal accounts are known, including the sinking of rafts with sandbags thrown from aircraft.

The Castro regime has shown time and time again its mercilessness with those who challenge its absolute rule. The executions came in the wake of a crackdown on Cuba’s peaceful dissident movement and two plane hijackings.  As world attention has been focused on Iraq, 75 human rights’ activists and independent journalists and librarians received prison terms ranging up to 28 years for conspiring with U.S. diplomats to subvert the government.

For additional information on the Truth Recovery Archive on Cuba and updates on research on loss of life during the Cuban Revolution, go to www.CubaArchive.org.

Contact: Maria C. Werlau, Free Society Project, Inc, Tel. 973.701-0520 / This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .