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
- NOVEMBER 22, 2000CubaDEATH PENALTY
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel has...
Venezuelan Foreign Minister Jose Vicente Rangel has said the ministry was studying the court records on Posada Carriles to determine whether there were judicial grounds to request his extradition
- AUGUST 9, 2000CubaDEATH PENALTY
Elizardo Sanchez, President of the Cuban Commission...
Elizardo Sanchez, President of the Cuban Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation (CCDHRN) sent a report on the death penalty to foreign media in Havana
- JULY 2, 2000CubaDEATH PENALTY
The Cuban government described condemned or recently...
The Cuban government described condemned or recently executed African Americans as revolutionary martyrs
- JUNE 24, 2000CubaDEATH PENALTY
President Fidel Castro in a message sent to the Cuban...
President Fidel Castro in a message sent to the Cuban condemned Gary Graham's execution in Texas as a racist "crime" and cited the execution as an example of why Elian Gonzalez (a Cuban boat boy who had been retained in the United States by his relatives
- JUNE 20, 2000CubaDEATH PENALTY
It was reported that in February six men, Osmany Brito...
It was reported that in February six men, Osmany Brito Cartaya, Alberto Diaz Perez, Julio Alberto Morales Montero, Morlaix Nodal Pozo, Reidel Rodriguez Reyes and Hector Santana Vega, were sentenced to death for killing five guards during a bloody jailbrea
- APRIL 26, 2000CubaDEATH 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 26 (no
- APRIL 21, 2000CubaDEATH PENALTY
Cuban television broadcast a programme in which government...
Cuban television broadcast a programme in which government journalists and commentators rolled out a litany of accusations against European Union states, Canada and other nations that voted with the United States to censure Cuba at the United Nation's Hum
- MARCH 30, 2000CubaDEATH PENALTY
At the 56° session of the Commission on Human Rights...
At the 56° session of the Commission on Human Rights Cuban Foreign Affairs Minister Perez Roque said it remained to be seen whether the Commission would ever muster the courage to condemn the United States for its unfair and arbitrary application of the d
- FEBRUARY 16, 2000CubaDEATH PENALTY
In a briefing to Members of the European Parliament,...
In a briefing to Members of the European Parliament, Commissioner Chris Patten acknowledged that much remained to be done in the human rights field, especially in what he felt were the problem areas of the death penalty, Cuba and China
- JANUARY 1, 2000CubaDEATH 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
- NOVEMBER 11, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On November 11, Cuban representative Bruno Rodriguez...
On November 11, Cuban representative Bruno Rodriguez Parrilla, speaking at the Third Committee of the General Assembly (human rights) under item 116a (death penalty), said that the debate was essentially on the principles of the Charter and on their inter
- JUNE 1, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
In June, the European Union, alarmed by the growing...
In June, the European Union, alarmed by the growing number of executions in the country, called on the Cuban authorities to limit their use of the death penalty and also the number of death-qualifiable offenses, and to adopt a moratorium on executions, in
- MAY 29, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On May 29, Sergio A
On May 29, Sergio A
- MAY 7, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On May 7, Gerardo Sanchez Santa Cruz of the Cuban "Commission...
On May 7, Gerardo Sanchez Santa Cruz of the Cuban "Commission for Human Rights and National Reconciliation" in Havana disclosed that the Cuban Government had executed 10 criminals by firing squad in the previous 3 months and has sentenced 5 more to death
- APRIL 28, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
Cuba abstained on the resolution on the death penalty...
Cuba abstained on the resolution on the death penalty approved by the UN Commission on Human Rights on April 28 (1999/61)
- APRIL 17, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On April 17, Fidel Castro promised to consider sparing...
On April 17, Fidel Castro promised to consider sparing the lives of the two Salvadorans sentenced to death for terrorism
- APRIL 1, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On April 1, a second Salvadoran man, Otto Rene Rodriguez...
On April 1, a second Salvadoran man, Otto Rene Rodriguez Llerena, was sentenced to death for a series of bombings and bombing attempts in Cuba
- MARCH 23, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On March 23, a Salvadoran man, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon,...
On March 23, a Salvadoran man, Raul Ernesto Cruz Leon, who confessed earlier in March in Havana's Provincial Tribunal, was convicted of terrorism and sentenced to death for a string of 1997 bombings in hotels and a restaurant, which killed an Italian tour
- MARCH 15, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On March 15, the Provincial Tribunal of Havana sentenced...
On March 15, the Provincial Tribunal of Havana sentenced Vladimiro Roca to 5 years imprisonment; René Gomez Manzano and Felix Bonne to 4 years; Marta Beatriz Roque to 3½ years
- MARCH 13, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On March 13, the Provincial Tribunal of Granma gave...
On March 13, the Provincial Tribunal of Granma gave out the news that José Luis Osorio Zamora, sentenced to death for murdering his 5-year-old son in Campechuela, had been executed
- MARCH 6, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On March 6, the Provincial Tribunal of Granma announced...
On March 6, the Provincial Tribunal of Granma announced that Francisco Javier Chavez Palacios, a 25-year-old musician, had been executed for having murdered Pedro Fonseca, a Communist Party official, in Bayamo on April 4, 1997
- MARCH 5, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On March 5, two Cuban citizens were executed, an official...
On March 5, two Cuban citizens were executed, an official organ of the Communist Party in Las Tuna reported on March 12
- MARCH 3, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On March 3, Cuban television reported that the Provincial...
On March 3, Cuban television reported that the Provincial Tribunal of Santiago had sentenced to death Francisco Portuondo Medina, aged 40, for murdering police Lieut
- MARCH 1, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
In March, a Cuban whose name was not revealed, resident...
In March, a Cuban whose name was not revealed, resident in the Oriental province of Holguin, was condemned to death by the Provincial Tribunal
- MARCH 1, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On March 1, the trial of Vladimiro Roca, son of one...
On March 1, the trial of Vladimiro Roca, son of one of the founders of the Communist Party, economist Marta Beatriz Roque, attorney René Gomez Manzano and former teacher Felix Bonne, held in prison for 17 months on charges of "sedition and acts against St
- FEBRUARY 15, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On February 15, President Fidel Castro said broader...
On February 15, President Fidel Castro said broader use of the death penalty was needed to save the island's socialist revolution
- FEBRUARY 12, 1999CubaDEATH PENALTY
On February 12, an official organ of the Communist...
On February 12, an official organ of the Communist Party in Las Tunas announced that two death sentences had been ratified by the Tribunal Supremo Popular
- JANUARY 1, 1999CubaDEATH 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, 1999CubaDEATH 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