Universal Declaration of Human Rights Adopted by General Assembly resolution 217 A (III) of December 10, 1948.
Article 19: Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.
International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
Adopted and opened for signature, ratification, and accession by General Assembly resolution 2200A (XXI) of December 16, 1966. Entry into force March 23, 1976, in accordance with Article 49.
Article 19
(1) Everyone shall have the right to hold opinions without interference.
(2) Everyone shall have the right to freedom of expression; this right shall include freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, regardless of frontiers, either orally, in writing or in print, in the form of art, or through any other media of his choice.
(3) The exercise of the rights provided for in paragraph 2 of this article carries with it special duties and responsibilities. It may therefore be subject to certain restrictions, but these shall only be such as are provided by law and are necessary:
(a) For respect of the rights or reputations of others;
(b) For the protection of national security or of public order (order public), or of public health or morals.
Cuban Penal Code Article 72
Any person shall be deemed dangerous if he or she has shown proclivity to commit crimes demonstrated by conduct that is in manifest contradiction with the norms of socialist morality.
Cuban Penal Code Article 91
The person who, in the interest of a foreign state, commits an act with the intent to cause damage to the independence of the Cuban state or the integrity of its territory, shall be punished with 10 to 20 years in prison or death.Law 88 Protection of Cuba’s National Independence and Economy
CHAPTER I
Generalities
Article 1: The purpose of this law is to categorize and penalize those acts directed at supporting, facilitating, or collaborating with the objectives of the “Helms-Burton” Law, the blockade and the economic war against our people, aimed at breaking the internal order, destabilizing the country and liquidating Cuba’s socialist state and independence.
Article 2: Given the special nature of this law, its application will be preferential to any criminal legislation that precedes it.
Article 3.1: The dispositions contained in the general part of the penal code are applicable to the crimes foreseen in this law.
3.2: The tribunal can impose the confiscation of goods as an accessory sanction to the crimes foreseen in this law.
3.3: The crimes foreseen in this law are sanctioned with independence from those committed for their execution or as a result of it.
CHAPTER II
Criminal Infractions
Article 4.1: Any person who supplies directly or through a third person the government of the United States of America, its agencies, dependencies, representatives or officials with information that facilitates the objectives of the “Helms-Burton” Law, the blockade or the economic war against our people, aimed at breaking the internal order, destabilizing the country and liquidating Cuba’s socialist state and independence, commits a crime punishable by a prison sentence of seven to 15 years.
4.2: The prison sentence is eight to 20 years if it coincides with one of the following circumstances:
- (a) if the deed is committed with help from more than two people;
- (b) if the deed is committed in search of profit or by means of a handout, remuneration, reward or promise of an advantage or benefit;
- (c) if the offender came to knowledge or possession of the information through a surreptitious manner or any other illicit manner;
- (d) if the offender came to knowledge of possession of the information because of the position he holds;
- (e) if, as a consequence of the deed, there is serious damage to the national economy;
- (f) if, as a consequence of the deed, the government of the United States of America, its agencies or dependencies, adopt repressive measures against Cuban or foreign industrial, commercial, or financial entities or entities of another nature, or against one of its directors or their families.
Article 5.1: Any person who seeks classified information to be used for the application of the “Helms-Burton” Law, the blockade or the economic war against our people, aimed at breaking the internal order, destabilizing the country and liquidating Cuba’s socialist state and independence, commits a crime punishable by a prison sentence of three to eight years, or a fine of five thousand quotas, or both.
5.2: The prison sentence is five to 12 years if it coincides with one of the following circumstances:
- (a) if the offender came to knowledge or possession of the information through a surreptitious manner or any other illicit manner;
- (b) if the deed is committed with help from more than two people.
5.3: The prison sentence is seven to 15 years if the obtained information, because of the nature of its content, creates serious damage to the national economy.
Article 6.1: Any person who accumulates, reproduces or spreads material of a subversive nature received from the government of the United States of America, its agencies, dependencies, representatives and officials or from any foreign entity for the support of the objectives of the “Helms-Burton” Law, the blockade or the economic war against our people, aimed at breaking the internal order, destabilizing the country and liquidating Cuba’s socialist state and independence, commits a crime punishable by a prison sentence of three to eight years, or a fine of five thousand quotas, or both.
6.2: The same sanction is applied to any person who with the same purposes brings into the country any material that refers to the above paragraph.
6.3: The prison sentence is four to 10 years if one of the deeds referred to in the above paragraphs coincides with one of the following circumstances:
- if the deeds are committed with help from more than two people;
- if the deeds are committed in search of profit or by means of a handout, remuneration, reward or promise of an advantage or benefit.
6.4: The prison sentence is seven to 15 years if the material, because of the nature of its content, creates serious damage to the national economy.
Article 7.1: Any person who with the intent of succeeding in the objectives of the “Helms-Burton” Law, the blockade or the economic war against our people, aimed at breaking the internal order, destabilizing the country and liquidating Cuba’s socialist state and independence, collaborates by any means with foreign radio and television stations, newspapers, magazines or other media outlets commits a crime punishable by a prison sentence of two to five years, or a fine of three thousand quotas, or both.
7.2: Criminal responsibility in the cases cited in the above paragraph will be attached for those who use said media, and not for foreign reporters legally accredited in this country, if that is the medium employed.
7.3: The prison sentence is three to eight years, or a fine of three to five thousand quotas, or both if the deed described in paragraph 1 is committed in search of profit or by means of a handout, remuneration, reward or promise of an advantage or benefit.
Article 8.1: Any person who disturbs public order with the purpose of cooperating with the objectives of “Helms-Burton” Law, the blockade or the economic war against our people, aimed at breaking the internal order, destabilizing the country and liquidating Cuba’s socialist state and independence commits a crime punishable by a prison sentence of two to five years, or a fine of three thousand quotas, or both.
8.2: Any person who promotes, organizes or incites disruptions of the public order, referred to in the above paragraph, commits a crime punishable by a prison sentence of three to eight years, or a fine of three to five thousand quotas, or both.
Article 9.1: Any person who in order to favor the objectives of “Helms-Burton” Law, the blockade or the economic war against our people, aimed at breaking the internal order, destabilizing the country and liquidating Cuba’s socialist state and independence goes through with any act intended to impede or damage the economic relations of the Cuban estate, or its public or private industrial, commercial, or financial entities commits a crime punishable by a prison sentence of seven to 15 years, or a fine of five thousand quotas, or both.
9.2: The prison sentence is eight to 20 years if the deed coincides with one of the following circumstances:
- if violence, intimidation, blackmail or other illicit media are used in order to accomplish the deed;
- if the deed is committed in search of profit or by means of a handout, remuneration, reward or promise of an advantage or benefit;
- if, as a consequence of the deed, the government of the United States of America, its agencies or dependencies, adopt repressive measures against Cuban or foreign industrial, commercial, or financial entities or entities of another nature, or against one of its directors or their families.
Article 10: The prison sentence is two to five years, or a fine of three thousand quotas, or both for any person who:
- proposes or incites others, by any means or way, to commit one of the crimes foreseen in this law;
- coordinates with other people to commit one of the crimes foreseen in this law.
Article 11: Any person who, for the commitment of the deeds foreseen in this law, directly or through a third person, receives, distributes or participates in the distribution of financial or material resources or resources of any other kind coming from the government of the United States of America, its agencies, dependencies, representatives and officials or from private entities, commits a crime punishable by a prison sentence of three to eight years, or a fine of three thousand quotas, or both.
Article 12: Any person who commits any of the crimes foreseen in the above articles with help from a third state that collaborates with ends established by the government of the United States, will be accountable for the sanctions established above.
Translations of Cuban statutes by María Salazar/CPJ.