Cuba: After the riots that occurred on July 11 and 12, as part of the political-communication operation encouraged and paid for by the US government against Cuba, alleged lists of disappeared have begun to circulate on the internet, the Granma newspaper publishes.
But are there truly missing persons in the country? Are such lists real? What is the procedure for arresting a person? What limits exist for the actions of the authorities?
When answering these questions, during an appearance this Tuesday in the program ?Hacemos Cuba?, Colonel Víctor Álvarez Valle, second head of the Specialized Body of the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of the Interior (Minint), categorically assured that in Cuba there is no missing persons, neither of the processes referred to the recent disorders, nor of any other that has been carried out.
“We have as a principle, in the Revolution, and it is also what characterizes the actions of the authorities, the right to life, liberty, the right to the preservation and security of the people,” the colonel said, who reported also that Cuba is a signatory to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance.
This position, he said, was also recognized in the Constitution approved by the majority of Cubans and, although in our legal system it is not classified as a crime, there is a group of figures that encompass and punish those who commit on these actions, in the case the occurrence of an enforced disappearance is proven.
In addition, he added, “there is no secret establishment for the prosecution of people who, for any reason, or for the commission of crimes, are taken to one of the Minint’s offices.”
Regarding the process of detention of a citizen, José Luis Reyes Blanco, head of the Supervision Department of the Directorate of Criminal Proceedings, of the Office of the Attorney General of the Republic, explained that ?the records of this process, the arrest record that is signed for the person involved, the information on the detainee and the presence of the Prosecutor’s Office throughout the criminal process from the beginning, contribute to controlling the investigation and allow us to ensure that in our country after 1959 there have never been disappeared ?. Obviously, if events of this nature exist in the country, the complaints to the Public Prosecutor’s Office, through all its channels of attention to citizens, would be considerable.
However, Reyes Blanco commented, in 2020, in the midst of a pandemic, the Prosecutor’s Office served more than 129,000 people throughout the country; During the first semester of this year, the attendance exceeded 49,000 and, as of July 12, due to events associated with the riots, 63 people have addressed this body, mostly in person.
“But none of these complaints or claims has been related to disappearances,” he stressed, but rather to arrests, that is, in search of certain information, which people have received in the places to which the interested parties have gone.
Today, he commented, the Prosecutor’s Office is investigating five claims related to general nonconformities of the process, but no case is pending to define the place where the person is. There is information and, more importantly, the family knows about it.
In this sense, Colonel Álvarez Valle pointed out that, when a person is taken to a police unit, the first thing that is done is to record it in a registry book, manually, and the record of his arrest is drawn up. Therefore, the person knows why he is being driven to the station.
Later, he continued, he follows a process that can occur in the first 24 hours, which includes his first statement, and the measures that, depending on the crime, can be imposed.
«In the first 24 hours, the family generally knows where the person is because, the Minint has a system of attention and information to the population, automated and interlaced between all the units, where each of the detainees is.
?In the recent cases, all the families know where their detainees are, they have attended the places, they have handed over personal hygiene items or specific medications; that is, the information on the whereabouts of the people is established and is auditable by the control bodies of the Prosecutor’s Office?, he explained.
Later, she also made reference to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, to which Cuba is a party and was examined in 2017.
As applied in the country, Article 17, specifically, establishes, among other elements, that:
No one will be detained in secret.
Without prejudice to other international obligations of the State party regarding deprivation of liberty, each State party, in its legislation:
It will establish the conditions under which orders of deprivation of liberty can be issued.
It will determine the authorities that are empowered to order deprivation of liberty.
It will guarantee that every person deprived of liberty is kept only in officially recognized and controlled places of deprivation of liberty.
It will guarantee that every person deprived of liberty is authorized to communicate with his family, a lawyer or any other person of his choice and to receive his visit, with the sole reservation of the conditions established by law, and in the case of a foreigner, to communicate with his/her consular authorities, in accordance with applicable international law.
It will guarantee the access of all competent authorities and institutions empowered by law to places of deprivation of liberty, if necessary with the prior authorization of a judicial authority.
For his part, the prosecutor clarified that all the people detained after the events of July 11 are in the capacity to appoint a lawyer, that some do not still have it responds to the choice of each one.
And to totally deny the aforementioned lists, at another point in the program it was established communication with one of the alleged disappeared, who also spoke of other colleagues who swell the records circulated on the internet and that they are in perfect condition.
The Second Head of the Specialized Body of the General Directorate of Criminal Investigation of the Minint reiterated that these lists lose credibility due to the lack of data, and because it has been verified that many of those registered there have never been detained or even interviewed by the authorities.
Reyes Blanco commented that, among the detainees, a group has already been released because it has been confirmed that they have not had criminal participation, others are with a non-detentive precautionary measure, and there are accused in the preparatory phase file, with precautionary measure of provisional prison.
TORTURE WILL NEVER BE A PRACTICE OF THE CUBAN AUTHORITIES
Another matrix that has wanted to position itself on social networks puts the dart in the occurrence of torture with those involved in destabilizing actions.
Colonel Álvarez Valle affirmed that, ?like forced disappearances, torture is not a practice in Cuba. The history of the Revolution demonstrates this, and it is not and will not be the practice of the combatants of the Ministry of the Interior to use force against the indicted persons. He also stated that the Greater Antilles is a party to the Convention against torture and other cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment.
José Luis Reyes explained that, after the riots, the presence of prosecutors in the units has increased, since it is of interest to know the opinion of the detainees, and this is a proper scenario for dialogue and for transmitting any concern or complaint.
The broadcast of Hacemos Cuba also drew attention to a complaint by a young man who has escalated in the last hours on social networks, referring to acts of violence committed against himself, after being arrested after the riots.
This person, the colonel pointed out, is subject to a precautionary measure of home confinement due to a previous process, which implies requirements that he has to meet; however, he was on the street, outside the vicinity of his home, in the midst of disturbances of order, which violates the provisions, of which he was informed.
The prosecutor Reyes Blanco added that, among the claims in progress in the Prosecutor’s Office, is that of this young man, since his father appeared in that body. All the data was taken and the pertinent inquiries and investigations will be made, with total transparency.
If any irregularity arises, the colonel stated, the circumstances in which the events occurred would be clarified, and the corresponding measures would be taken, either in the disciplinary order, if it were a combatant, or in the criminal order if the conduct became violation of the law.
Therefore, the arguments that express there are no disappeared or tortured in Cuba were sufficiently clear, and if any irregularity occurs or has occurred in the actions of the Ministry of the Interior or the Prosecutor’s Office, it will be investigated, the results will be made known If violations are found, measures will be taken to allow the restitution of legality.