In a State of Rights, based on legality, there is respect for civil liberties and equal justice. Also implied is legal control over government activities, to break the impunity of the State for its own acts. However, illegality in Cuba has been turned into an extensive practice, principally by state bodies.
Is it normal that a police officer, or members of State Security, will cite a citizen. But the only ones legally permitted to do this are the investigator, the prosecutor or the court. Those in uniform are agents of the authority whose only role is to deliver the document.
The agents undertake, without legitimacy, acts under their own authority or that of a public official, giving them an official character. This is a crime controlled under the Penal Code under the title of, “Usurpation of Public Functions.”
The citizen doesn’t know that, in these cases, they can denounce the usurpers before the military prosecutor. But it is difficult to get them to accept an accusation of this kind. The impunity of the State system rises to unsuspected levels, along with ignorance of the criminal proceedings.
It is also common, in a warning issued, for not appearing in response to an illegal official citation, that the agents of the authority will add a zero to the legally established fine. The law provides for, on a first offence, the imposition of a 50 peso fine, the second to a legal proceeding for disobedience.
In the notice, the police and members of State Security, warn that ignoring the summons will incur a fine of 500 pesos. The law requires that a person obey a summons from an authority, whenever this citation meets legal requirements. The “inflated” figure is a kind of coercion to impede the exercise of known rights.
Disregard of the criminal procedures is a result of the excess of power granted by the State to its repressive organs, at the expense of civil liberties and the legal security of citizens. A fact that allows the officials of the State and the agents of authority to ignore the legal requirements and act on their volition.
