Cuba
Death penalty and prisoners' rights · Archive since 1999
Data card
- Legal status
- Abolitionist de facto
- Executions recorded in 2026
- 0
- Executions recorded in 2025
- 0
- First news item in the archive
- JANUARY 1, 1999 · The Penal Code presently in force provides for the...
- News items in the archive
- 119
Source: Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026.
Cuba is classified as Abolitionist de facto in the Hands Off Cain database, updated to 2026. In 2026 the association recorded 0 executions in the country, against 0 the year before. The archive holds 119 news items on Cuba, from 1999 to today.
Latest news
- APRIL 19, 2003CubaDEATH PENALTY
Cuba said it would not allow a visit by a United Nations...
Cuba said it would not allow a visit by a United Nations envoy to look into accusations of human rights abuses on the island following the most severe crackdown in decades on opponents of President Fidel Castro
- APRIL 19, 2003CubaDEATH PENALTY
Cuba said it would not allow a visit by a United Nations...
Cuba said it would not allow a visit by a United Nations envoy to look into accusations of human rights abuses on the island following the most severe crackdown in decades on opponents of President Fidel Castro
- APRIL 17, 2003CubaDEATH PENALTY
The UN Human Rights commission rejected an amendment...
The UN Human Rights commission rejected an amendment criticizing a dissident crackdown by Cuba, but instead approved a milder resolution calling for a UN rights monitor to visit the island
- APRIL 14, 2003CubaDEATH PENALTY
The European Union condemned the repressive crackdown...
The European Union condemned the repressive crackdown by Cuban authorities
- APRIL 11, 2003CubaDEATH PENALTY
Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Barbaro Leodan Sevilla...
Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Barbaro Leodan Sevilla GarcIa and Jorge Luis Martinez Isaac, three men convicted of terrorism for hijacking of a passenger ferry in Cuba were executed
- APRIL 10, 2003CubaDEATH PENALTY
HOC supported the demonstrations, promoted by the Transnational...
HOC supported the demonstrations, promoted by the Transnational Radical Party and the Italian Radicals, to ask that funds given to Fidel Castro's regime by the European Commission be suspended
- JANUARY 1, 2003CubaDEATH PENALTY
The Penal Code presently in force provides for the...
The Penal Code presently in force provides for the death penalty for 112 offenses, 33 of which are common crimes
- JANUARY 1, 2003CubaDEATH PENALTY
Cuba interrupted a three-year de facto moratorium on...
Cuba interrupted a three-year de facto moratorium on executions in April 2003 with the shooting of three men accused of terrorism
- JANUARY 1, 2003CubaDEATH PENALTY
The Penal Code presently in force provides for the...
The Penal Code presently in force provides for the death penalty for 112 offences, 33 of which are common crimes
- JANUARY 1, 2003CubaDEATH PENALTY
The death penalty has been used in Cuba since the 1959...
The death penalty has been used in Cuba since the 1959 revolution, after which Castro's triumphant revolutionary forces tried and executed scores of supporters of former dictator Fulgencio Batista
- JANUARY 1, 2003CubaDEATH PENALTY
Offences punishable by death include: crimes against...
Offences punishable by death include: crimes against external State security; crimes against internal State security; crimes against peace and international law; acts against State security (like the violation of Cuban territory by participating as a memb
- DECEMBER 2, 2002CubaDEATH PENALTY
Cuba's top prosecutor defended the island's continued...
Cuba's top prosecutor defended the island's continued use of the death penalty as a deterrent to atrocious common crimes, but noted that the measure is used selectively
- OCTOBER 18, 2002CubaDEATH PENALTY
The Cuban Attorney General's Office sought the death...
The Cuban Attorney General's Office sought the death penalty for a man charged with the murders of six people
- JULY 4, 2002CubaDEATH PENALTY
The number of political prisoners in Cuba has increased...
The number of political prisoners in Cuba has increased up to 230 in the first half of 2002, reported leader of the illegal Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation Elizardo Sanchez Santa Cruz
- APRIL 25, 2002CubaDEATH PENALTY
Cuba abstained from the resolution 2002/77 on the death...
Cuba abstained from the resolution 2002/77 on the death penalty at the 58th UN Commission on Human Rights
- FEBRUARY 4, 2002CubaDEATH PENALTY
Mexican President Vicente Fox said he had pressed Cuban...
Mexican President Vicente Fox said he had pressed Cuban President Fidel Castro to abolish the death penalty in Cuba
- JANUARY 9, 2002CubaDEATH PENALTY
Some 50 prisoners await execution in Cuba, though no...
Some 50 prisoners await execution in Cuba, though no death sentences have been carried out there since 2000, an independent human rights organization on the island said, adding that most of those convicts live under "subhuman conditions
- JANUARY 1, 2002CubaDEATH PENALTY
The Penal Code presently in force provides for the...
The Penal Code presently in force provides for the death penalty for 112 offenses, 33 of which are common crimes
- DECEMBER 25, 2001CubaDEATH PENALTY
The Venezuelan government formally requested that Panama...
The Venezuelan government formally requested that Panama extradite a Cuban man, Luis Posada Carriles, accused of blowing up a Cubana Aviacion airliner in 1976 shortly after take-off from Barbados
- DECEMBER 20, 2001CubaDEATH PENALTY
With President Fidel Castro presiding, Cuban lawmakers...
With President Fidel Castro presiding, Cuban lawmakers unanimously approved an expanded antiterrorism law that reaffirmed the use of the death penalty for the most extreme acts of terror
- DECEMBER 20, 2001CubaDEATH PENALTY
The Venezuelan Supreme Court (TSJ) approved a request...
The Venezuelan Supreme Court (TSJ) approved a request for the extradition of alleged anti-Castro terrorist Luis Posada Carriles, who is jailed in Panama on charges of conspiring to kill the Cuban leader
- DECEMBER 10, 2001CubaDEATH PENALTY
The European Union foreign ministers decided to maintain...
The European Union foreign ministers decided to maintain their "common position" on Cuba which conditions cooperation with Havana on the Castro government applying reforms on human rights and moving towards political pluralism
- NOVEMBER 9, 2001CubaDEATH PENALTY
At its plenary session in Brussels last week, the Joint...
At its plenary session in Brussels last week, the Joint Parliamentary Assembly urged the Cuban authorities to provide a strong signal of the liberalisation by releasing political prisoners and abolishing the death sentence
- APRIL 25, 2001CubaDEATH PENALTY
Cuba abstained from the resolution on the death penalty...
Cuba abstained from the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 25 , 2001 (2001/68)
- APRIL 5, 2001CubaDEATH PENALTY
Cuban President Fidel Castro lambasted the USA in an...
Cuban President Fidel Castro lambasted the USA in an address at the 105th Inter-Parliamentary Union conference in Havana
- MARCH 15, 2001CubaDEATH PENALTY
Cuban Minister for Foreign Affairs expressed its concern...
Cuban Minister for Foreign Affairs expressed its concern over Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso's indication that her country might not extradite four suspected assassins of Cuban leader Fidel Castro on the grounds that Cuba has the death penalty
- JANUARY 1, 2001CubaDEATH PENALTY
The Penal Code presently in force provides for the...
The Penal Code presently in force provides for the death penalty for 112 offenses, 33 of which are common crimes
- DECEMBER 3, 2000CubaDEATH PENALTY
Cuba's President Fidel Castro said the four Cuban exiles...
Cuba's President Fidel Castro said the four Cuban exiles accused in Panama of plotting to assassinate him would not be executed if they were extradited back to the communist-ruled island for trial
- NOVEMBER 29, 2000CubaDEATH PENALTY
Luis Posada Carriles, 72, was arrested on November...
Luis Posada Carriles, 72, was arrested on November 17 at a Panama hotel after Fidel Castro accused him and three others of planning to assassinate him arrived for the 10th Ibero-American summit
- NOVEMBER 25, 2000CubaDEATH PENALTY
Cuba is willing to abolish the death penalty, the Cuban...
Cuba is willing to abolish the death penalty, the Cuban Cardinal Jaime Ortega said