FIGHTING TERRORISM AND WAR

Criminal legislation enacted after 1 January 1959

At the beginning of 1959, it became evident that the penal legislation needed to be changed in order to allow for a more efficient response, inter alia, to the terrorist actions against the Cuban people that the more aggressive circles of the United States Government had begun to organize.

Although the entire Social Defence Code (fundamental penal law) that was in force at the time clearly needed to be replaced, the prevailing social situation was such that the most effective and appropriate solution was to enact only a partial reform, i.e., to make only those changes that seemed strictly necessary. This was done, particularly in the case of offences involving terrorism and terrorist acts, in order to enable the criminal justice system to contribute to the struggle against terrorist acts, which were seriously hurting the Cuban people, causing damage against individuals and to their material wealth.

As a result, a number of laws were passed. Some of these new laws changed the fundamental penal legislation, and others replaced it, particularly as regards the suppression of terrorist acts.

The laws in question were the following:

· Law No. 425 of 7 July 1959, adding new offences to the existing code (Social Defence Code), including offences that intrinsically constituted terrorist acts; it also increased penalties for other felonies also related to such acts.
· Law No. 923 of 4 January 1961, amending the so-called offences of destruction (estragos), in order to establish harsh penalties for saboteurs and terrorists who in association with criminal bands financed by the United States Government were perpetrating acts that affected the life or physical integrity of persons or destroyed the material resources of the national economy.

· Law No. 988 of 29 November 1961, which defined and set penalties for new modalities of terrorism, including attacks against national leaders, sabotage and destruction of national assets with intent to create social unrest.

· Law No. 1226 of 16 September 1969, which defined and set penalties for the offence of air or maritime piracy, including hijacking or diversion of vessels or aircraft.

· Law No. 1246 of 14 May 1973, which also amended the Social Defence Code in force at the time by increasing the penalties for offences relating to the disclosure of confidential information of an economic, military, scientific or technical nature.

· Law No. 21 of 15 February 1979, which set down the new Penal Code which replaced the former Social Defence Code, which was thereby repealed. This new Penal Code included the offences covered by the laws mentioned above.

· Law No. 62 of 29 December 1987, containing the new Penal Code which replaced the Penal Code of 1979. Like the 1979 Code, the new one included all the legislation referred to above, including the provisions relating to penalties for terrorist acts. (Articles 106-109 of the new Code, as well as articles 117, 118, 122 and 123, on terrorism, were repealed by the new anti-terrorism law of 20 December 2001, discussed in the relevant chapter below).