Interim Report - Report No 98, 1967

Case No 425 (Cuba) - Complaint date: 17-DEC-64 - Closed

1. 195. This case was considered by the Committee at its meetings held in May 1965 and February 1966, together with Cases Nos. 283 and 329, when it submitted the interim conclusions in respect of it contained in paragraphs 159 to 170 of the 83rd Report and in paragraphs 111 to 121 of the 87th Report respectively, both of which were approved by the Governing Body.
2. 196. By a letter dated 1 April 1967 transmitted by the Cuban Permanent Delegation in Geneva, the Government submitted some of the additional information requested in paragraph 121 of the 87th Report of the Committee.
3. 197. Cuba has ratified the Freedom of Association and Protection of the Right to Organise Convention, 1948 (No. 87), and the Right to Organise and Collective Bargaining Convention, 1949 (No. 98).

A. A. The complainants' allegations

1. 198. In its complaint of 17 December 1964 the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (I.C.F.T.U.) stated that a number of trade union officials had been imprisoned for alleged " counter-revolutionary activities " and requested the Governing Body to set up a fact-finding commission with a view to ascertaining the equity of the judicial procedure applied to the officials in question and the way in which they were treated in prison.
2. 199. At its meeting in February 1966 the Committee had before it a communication from the Government dated 5 November 1965, supplying information with respect to 12 of the 24 persons whose names and trade union activities were listed in the complaint, with the texts of the judgments given against them in public hearings by various Councils of War (revolutionary courts). On that occasion, in paragraph 121 of its 87th Report, the Committee recommended the Governing Body, among other things, with regard to the 12 trade union officials on whose situation the Government had supplied information, to emphasise to the Government, as it had already done previously, the importance which it attached to the principle that trade unionists, like all other persons, should be entitled to the safeguards of normal judicial procedure, and to invite the Government to co-operate by furnishing, as soon as possible, detailed information concerning the present situation of the trade union officials mentioned in the complaint.
3. 200. This recommendation having been approved by the Governing Body, the request for additional information referred to was brought to the notice of the Government by a letter dated 10 March 1966.
4. 201. The annexes to the communication of 1 April 1967 from the Cuban Permanent Delegation in Geneva contain the additional information submitted by the Cuban Government respecting five others of the 24 trade union officials named in the complaint, as well as the text of various relevant judgments pronounced by various Councils of War in public hearings.
5. 202. It emerges from this information and the judgments that Mr. Angel Custodio Linares (called Angel Custodio in the complaint) was sentenced to 20 years' deprivation of freedom for having been an accessory to the offence of theft with breaking and entering, by virtue of sections 516 and 521 (paragraph 2) of the Code of Social Defence as amended by the provisions of Act No. 1098 of 26 March 1963. According to the text of the judgment, this offence was committed when the accused, at a date not specified in the judgment, entered the dwelling of a third party, breaking the padlock, and stealing a shirt and some bedclothes. Mrs. Ada González Gallo was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment, for complicity, with eight other persons, in acts which, according to the Council of War, constituted offences against the state authorities and against the stability and unity of the nation, and arson, defined and made punishable by section 157 (paragraph 3), taken in conjunction with section 148, sections 465 (paragraph A) and 128 of the Code of Social Defence as amended by Acts No. 425 of 7 July 1959 and No. 923 of 4 January 1961. In the judgment it is stated to have been proved that Ada González Gallo was among persons selected by the " forces of regression " for the destruction of workplaces, industrial plant, etc., belonging to the nation, and especially a particular department store in Havana, which was set fire to by a co-accused. Mr. Jorge Blanco Ferrando was sentenced, with others, to nine years' rigorous imprisonment, having been accused of belonging to an organisation, not identified in the judgment, dedicated to various counter-revolutionary activities such as the distribution of propaganda, the sale of bonds, carrying arms and explosives and hiding fugitives. The judgment states that some days before 17 April 1961, the date of an armed invasion of the Cuban territory, the accused were engaged in great activity to facilitate the invasion. The Council of War considered that these acts constituted an offence against the state authorities, defined by section 157 (paragraph 3) of the Code of Social Defence as amended by Act No. 425.
6. 203. According to another of the judgments, Mrs. Sara Carranza Astiastegui (called Sara Carranza Arriastegui by the complainants) was sentenced to 20 years' rigorous imprisonment for having committed an offence against the unity and stability of the nation, defined by section 128 of the Code of Social Defence as amended by Act No. 425. The Council of War declared it to have been proved that this person and the other accused belonged to an organisation styled " Movement of 30 November ", to which it attributes the execution of the plans of various foreign organisations and governments. The judgment declares it to have been proved that Sara Carranza Astiastegui was the national finance co-ordinator of this organisation and that as such she " received considerable sums from abroad which were distributed to the unit chiefs for their expenses ".
7. 204. The judgments referred to in the two preceding paragraphs stated that the additional penalties inflicted on the accused include confiscation of all of their goods. The judgments also indicated that the accused were defended by a number of counsel, whose names are listed.
8. 205. With respect to Mr. Arnaldo Muller Sotolongo, the Government stated that this person was sentenced to nine years' rigorous imprisonment by the revolutionary court of the district of Havana, by a judgment dated 30 April 1962, on the charge of offences against the unity and stability of the nation, arson and wilful damage. The case in question was the same as that relating to the sentencing of Mr. Reinaldo González, considered by the Committee under Case No. 283.
9. 206. The Government repeated what it had said earlier regarding the national provisions on jurisdiction and competence, the penal provisions and procedural safeguards applied. It added that in all cases the accused participated directly in the commission of serious and sufficiently distinct acts, defined and made punishable under legislation promulgated prior to the offence, and that the activities in question had nothing in common with trade union militancy and activities.
10. 207. With respect to the seven other persons on whom additional information was requested, the Government stated that in spite of its wishes and the zeal displayed by the competent officials, it was not able to submit any information on these cases and repeated its earlier observation on the need for further information or concrete antecedents in order that the cases might be identified.
11. 208. With regard to the five persons in respect of whom the Government has now sent information, the Committee observes that their situation is similar to that of those other persons on whose sentences the Government provided the information examined by the Committee at its meeting in February 1966. These five persons were in fact judged in a public hearing before revolutionary courts or Councils of War by virtue of penal provisions quoted in the respective judgments, and sentenced to various terms of imprisonment. In all these cases the alleged facts on which the sentences were passed, as emerges from the information and the texts of the judgments submitted by the Government, do not appear to bear any relation to trade union activities. From the Government's observations it seems that these cases too were conducted in accordance with the exceptional procedure laid down in the 1896 Act governing trials in the Republic of Cuba under arms, owing to the fact that the offences of which these persons had been accused were regarded as " counter-revolutionary ".

B. B. The Committee's conclusions

1. 209. As in Case No. 283 already mentioned, and earlier in this same case, the Committee again recalled in this respect that in cases where it has established that an exceptional procedure is being followed, it had always reiterated the importance it attached to the observance in such circumstances of all the guarantees afforded by due legal process. In the cases in point, it emerges from the information submitted by the Government that the persons concerned were able to employ the services of defence counsel, but it did not appear that they enjoyed safeguards such as appeals for re-evaluation and appeals against the sentences imposed.
2. 210. With regard to the seven persons whom the Government states it cannot identify, the Committee notes that, according to the text of the complaint as communicated to the Government, the trade union leaders in question are Luis Miguel Linsuain, General Secretary of the Gastronomic Federation of Oriente Province, who was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment; Alberto Garcia, General Secretary of the National Medical Federation, sentenced to 30 years' imprisonment; Antonio Dagas, Deputy General Secretary of the Cuban section of the Spanish trade union organisation National Confederation of Labour (C.N.T.), imprisoned in La Cubana fort; Leandro Barreras, member of the Executive Board of the National Federation of Sugar Workers; Norberto Abreu, Secretary of the Federation of Printing and Allied Trades; Carmen Méndez Linares, employee of the Confederation of Cuban Workers (C.T.C.), sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment; and Juan Manuel Reines, sentenced to ten years' imprisonment for being an officer of the trade union section of the clandestine movement.
3. 211. The Committee duly appreciates the grounds on which the Government declares itself unable to supply any information regarding the situation of the persons listed in paragraph 210 above. Nevertheless, in order to be able to formulate its conclusions with respect to the allegations concerning them and the request of the complainants for the setting up of a fact-finding committee, the Committee would be grateful to the Government if it would communicate any information which it might be possible to obtain by additional investigation in this matter and, in any case, be good enough to specify as quickly as possible whether the persons in question are or are not in fact being detained or serving prison sentences in Cuba, and, if so, to communicate the grounds for their detention or sentence and the texts of the judgments passed in respect of them.

The Committee's recommendations

1. 212. Under these circumstances, as regards the case as a whole, the Committee recommends the Governing Body:
   • (a) to take note of the information submitted by the Government in respect of five of the 12 trade union officers whose situation has been examined in this case since the approval of the 87th Report of the Committee, from which information it appears that the said persons have been sentenced to various terms of imprisonment by virtue of facts and penal provisions which have no connection with trade union activities;
   • (b) to draw the attention of the Government once again, however, having regard to the exceptional procedure followed in the present cases, to the importance it attaches to the principle that trade unionists, like all other persons, should be entitled to the safeguards of normal judicial procedure;
   • (c) to request the Government to be good enough to supply information concerning the seven remaining trade unionists of the 24 listed in the complaint, which it might obtain by additional investigation in the matter, and, in any case, to state as quickly as possible whether these seven persons are or are not in fact being detained or serving prison sentences in Cuba, and, if so, to communicate the grounds for their detention or sentence and the text of the judgments passed with respect to them;
   • (d) to take note of the present interim report, it being understood that the Committee will submit a new report once it has received the additional information requested of the Government in subparagraph (c) above.