The authorities believe that the Constitution, approved in 2019, is based on “legal guarantees”
14ymedio, Havana, July 16, 2024 — Yamila Peña, Attorney General of Cuba, celebrated that “the policy of severity is being complied with,” during a meeting on Monday with senior officials of the Public Ministry and the Interior. Her assessment came after offering a fact: 91% of the prison sentences that Cuban prosecutors have requested this year have been ratified by the judges. The members of the Committee on Constitutional and Legal Affairs of the Parliament – lawyers, judges and police – meeting this week, commented on a remark by the president of the Supreme Court, Rubén Remigio Ferro, on the 2019 Constitution: “We have given ourselves extremely supportive laws, which are a challenge for those involved in procedural management.”
The legal situation is aggravated if it is considered that Cuba only has 69% of the judges and 74% of the prosecutors it needs to operate with the required “severity” – a word repeated by all the members of the Commission. The Prosecutor’s Office is in the middle of the “preparation and reorganization of the force,” Peña said, at the worst of times: the country is in crisis and crime has proliferated.
Prosecutors have asked to pay more attention to the investigation and police instruction. The officers, it was explained at the meeting, drafted in the first half of this year more than 29,000 reports – documents in which a police investigation is recorded – and reviewed 39,000 files in the preparatory phase.
Some 57% of the accused whose names appeared on the reports ended up in jail
Some 57% of the accused whose names appeared on the reports ended up in prison, a sentence that was also applied to 84% of the defendants who appeared in the files in the preparatory phase, according to Peña. For the following semester, the priority of the Prosecutor’s Office is to improve its connection with the Ministry of the Interior in the literal sense: they aspire to the “technological interoperability of data.”
The idea, according to the president of the commission, José Luis Toledo, is”not to delay the criminal response” and that the “confrontation” be prioritized. Ferro agreed with this assessment and asked to respect the “quality of the processes,” which for the president of the Supreme Court means that the Police “be consistent” with the investigation, but that the Prosecutor’s Office maintains its role of “controlling.”
The commission demanded changes to the 2021 Law of Criminal Procedure and agreed to prepare a draft of suggestions that will be delivered in October. Prosecutors and other provincial officials also presented the difficulties “of the base”; in particular, the small staff, their lack of preparation – these are young graduates – and the fact that, also in a sector as rigid as the judiciary, they tend to leave the country or for other jobs.
Deputy Yensei González, from Granma province, warned that there are more “facts of violence and crimes against the patrimony,” and that the files of the prosecutor’s office are often closed with excessive delay and many breaches of protocol. Edelso Pérez, from Ciego de Ávila, complained about the “exodus abroad,” and asked his interlocutors and the Ministry of the Interior to “focus on the issue as a priority of the State.” “Human capital, technology and more resources are required,” he said.
Ledys María Labrador, deputy for Las Tunas, drew attention to the increase in technology-related crimes
Ledys María Labrador, deputy for Las Tunas, drew attention to the increase in technology-related crimes. The accused, she reported, are mostly “young people who are not professionals” but who have “deep knowledge” in the field of computer science, against whom, she warned, the government does not have enough tools. These are, above all, “digital scams” for which Cubans aren’t prepared.
First Colonel Moraima Bravet spoke on behalf of the Ministry of the Interior about digital crimes and said that criminals have become increasingly “sophisticated” in their methods of action, so detecting them has become more complex. “We are not behind,” she clarified. Her preventive measure: the television program Tras la Huella (Following the Tracks), funded by the Police, “is showing cases of different kinds” to tell Cubans how to protect themselves from digital scams.
Bravet was optimistic about the Ministry of the Interior, which, judging by its assessments, does not suffer the lack of personnel that the Prosecutor’s Office does. Its people work to ensure the “retention” of young recruits, and “there are many,” she stressed, working in the ranks of the Police. Also for them, she explained, the order of “severity” is given.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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