EFE (via 14ymedio), Miami, 4 November 2022 — A commission formed by lawyers, parliamentarians and politicians from several countries stated on Thursday that the death of seven occupants of a boat hit by a border guard ship in Cuba may constitute a “crime against humanity” and asked the Cuban people for evidence to denounce it.
The International Justice Cuba Commission, created in order to bring to international justice those responsible for human rights violations in Cuba, echoed the allegations of survivors and relatives of the seven dead.
In statements released by Miami media, several people said in recent days that the ship of the border guards cut off the boat, in which 23 people were traveling to the United States, and rammed it.
Diana Meizoso, who saw her two-year-old daughter die in the collision that occurred in Bahía Honda, told Radio Televisión Martí on Monday: “They rammed the boat and broke it in half.”
According to Meizoso, when the patrol ship passed their boat, “he (the border guard officer) said: “Now I’m going to break you in half,” and then rammed us and broke the boat in the middle.”
The Cuban exile in Miami described from the first moment as a “massacre” what happened in Bahía Honda on September 29 and announced for this Saturday an act of support to the victims and their families.
The Justice Cuba Commission, led by Mexican jurist René Bolio, said on Thursday in a statement in Miami that it had analyzed all the available information about “the Bahía Honda massacre,” where “several innocent civilians were killed by Cuban dictatorship officials.”
“These crimes, for their notorious cruelty, for being by the dictatorship against citizens, for having been committed by members of the system, for having used means owned by the dictatorship, and for several other elements, are considered crimes against humanity, according to the Statute of Rome,” he emphasized.
According to the commission, those responsible for these crimes “are not only the material executors, but the full chain of command,” and “universal jurisdiction means that any established court can prosecute such crimes.”
The Commission asked the Cuban people and everyone who has “evidence, proof and information” to send it to Justice@JusticeCuba.org.
They also request “all means of identification of the criminals, their identity, positions, hierarchy and current location.”
The purpose of the Justice Cuba Commission is to constitute an international court to judge the crimes against humanity committed in Cuba.
In July 2017, the then-called International Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against Humanity by Cuba held its first public hearing in Miami, in which victims and witnesses of human rights violations in Cuba participated from 1959 to the present day under the slogan of “Never forget.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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