Quick trial, firing squad for three men provoke fury

Three men who hijacked a passenger ferry and attempted to steer it to Florida last week were executed by firing squad at dawn Friday after summary trials, infuriating the U.S. government, international human rights organizations and Cuban Americans in Miami.

The men were charged with ''very grave acts of terrorism'' and sentenced at trials Tuesday, according to an official statement read on Cuban state television. The men appealed -- but the sentences were swiftly upheld by Cuba's Supreme Tribunal and ruling Council of State and carried out shortly thereafter, the statement said.

No one was hurt in the hijacking, ultimately foiled by the Cuban authorities, for which the three men were executed.

The three were identified as Lorenzo Enrique Copello Castillo, Bárbaro Leodán Sevilla García and Jorge Luis Martínez Isaac. In Miami, Yordani Montoya, 27, half sister of Martínez Isaac, blasted the Castro regime.

''This was an injustice,'' she said. `No one was killed or injured in the hijacking. If he had gotten a prison term, that would have been OK. . . . From Fidel Castro, you can expect anything.''

In Havana, police reportedly were sent to cordon off the neighborhood where Sevilla García's mother lives, after witnesses said some neighbors went into the streets crying and shouting against the government.

Though more than a dozen people have been executed in Cuba since 1994, Friday's executions were the first of Cubans charged with terrorism-related offenses in more than a decade. An exile from Miami, Eduardo Díaz Betancourt, was executed in January 1992 after being found guilty of terrorism, sabotage and enemy propaganda following his arrest while on a mission to infiltrate Cuba.

''These were almost certainly cases in which the defendants were not given due process and, given that Cuba hadn't carried out death sentences in two years, a highlydisturbing development,'' read a statement issued by the U.S. branch of Amnesty International.

Friday's executions came as a shock, but seemed part of a deliberate hardening of Cuban government attitudes against any act of political dissent. They were the capstone to weeks of heightened political tension on the island, highlighted by scores of arrests of dissidents, stiff sentences against some of those opponents and a string of successful and attempted hijackings.

Seventy-five dissidents were sentenced this week to terms ranging from six to 28 years on charges of receiving money from, and collaborating with, U.S. officials to undermine the Cuban government.

Senior Cuban officials have said the crackdown was necessary to protect national security against opponents bent on undermining the island's communist system at the behest of the United States.

Cuba's Catholic bishops issued a statement deploring the executions and the crackdown on dissidents. ''No one has the right to put in danger the lives of other people, like the hijackers did, but in the same manner, no one can decide that death must be inflicted on others as a remedy,'' the statement said in part.

The Bush administration reacted quickly, calling the executions a reflection of totalitarianism.

''We are concerned that these executions may have been a result of summary proceedings,'' said Lou Fintor, a State Department spokesman. ``Summary proceedings are a hallmark of totalitarian dictatorships like Cuba. Due process allows an appropiate judicial process to carefully identify and punish serious crimes like hijacking and guard against manufactured charges based on political agendas as was done with the opposition groups.''

South Florida's Cuban-American Republicans in Congress also condemned the executions.

''They were sentenced in kangaroo courts, tried for trying to flee Cuba and within hours shot to death,'' said Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen.

''Castro's oppression constitutes a form of terrorism that cannot continue to be allowed to exist by the international community,'' said Rep. Lincoln Diaz-Balart.

In Miami, Cuban exile leaders were furious. Joe Garcia, executive director of the Cuban American National Foundation, summed up the sentiment: ''They have murdered these poor people,'' he said. ``The summary trial and an execution without due process is murder, and the U.S government should indict Fidel Castro and his brother Raúl Castro and all the other thugs that govern that island.''

In Key West, a U.S. Coast Guard spokesman said the service was on alert for any unusual activity in the Florida Straits arising from the executions. In times of tension in Cuba, South Florida officials worry about uncontrollable refugee boatlifts.

Criticism also came from a few other countries -- but, by and large, foreign governments were silent. For example, Spanish Vice President Mariano Rajoy said the executions prove Castro ''is a tyrant,'' but Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez -- a Castro friend -- refused comment, saying he did not wish to interfere in Cuban affairs.

Some Cuban experts said the executions and the dissident crackdown marked the start of a period of harshness in the island.

Jaime Suchlicki, director of the Institute for Cuba and Cuban American Studies at the University of Miami, said Castro is trying to eliminate the opposition to solidify the Cuban Communist Party before retiring.

''The crackdown has to do with a plan by Castro of ending the opposition to pave the way for his brother and succession in Cuba,'' Suchlicki said.

Castro has repeatedly said his brother Raúl, the defense minister, will be his successor.

Besides those executed, another four men received life sentences: Maikel Delgado Aramburo, Yoanny Thomas González, Harold Alcalá Aramburo and Ramón Henry Grillo.

Also sentenced in the same case were Wilmer Ledea Pérez, who received a 30-year term; Ana Rosa Ledea Ríos, five years; Yolanda Pando Rizo, three years; and Dania Rojas Gongora, two years.

The group, reportedly armed with at least one pistol and several knives, seized the Baragua and its 50 passengers in Havana Bay April 2 and ordered the captain to sail north toward Florida.

Later that day, the 45-foot ferry ran out of fuel in the Florida Straits. Officers on two Cuban Coast Guard patrol boats that chased the boat tried to persuade the hijackers to return to the island.

The hijackers allegedly threatened to throw passengers from the boxy, flat-bottomed boat overboard but soon agreed to let the ferry be towed 30 miles back to Cuba's Mariel port for refueling.

After the boat docked April 3 in Mariel, west of Havana, Cuban authorities gained control of the ferry and arrested the suspects. The arrests came after a French woman hostage jumped into the water to confuse her captors.

The standoff ended with all the hostages, then the suspects, jumping into the water.

The Baragua was hijacked a day after a Cuban passenger plane was hijacked to Key West by a man who allegedly threatened to blow up the aircraft with two grenades. The grenades turned out to be fake.

Cuba blames the hijackings on what it says is a lax attitude by American authorities toward Cuban hijackers who reach American shores.

Hijackers who reached U.S. soil are now in U.S. custody, and U.S. officials deny they are being treated leniently.

U.S. Attorney Marcos Jiménez in Miami has said Castro is ''wrong'' to say his office will treat the seven charged hijackers as ''heroes,'' noting they could face at least 20 years in prison for forcing the planes to Key West.

Yet, U.S. District Judge James Lawrence King on Thursday agreed with a Key West magistrate that six of the hijackers could be released on bail because they pose no danger to the community or risk of flight.

Immigration officials, however, say that even if the defendants are ordered released on bail, they would still remain in detention because of immigration violations.

"BTW, have you comne up with that passage in International Law that allows for the execution of hijackers?"

Yes I have Luis, but you are not going to like it.
http://www.un.org/law/ilc

This will take you to the International Law Commission (ILC) website.

Select sec VII. PENALTIES, Then select Article 47(2),
which is the ILC statute that allows the court to

"have regard to the penalties provided for by the law of:

(a) the State of which the convicted person is a national;

(b) the State where the crime was committed; and

(c) the State which had custody of and jurisdiction over the accused."

In addition, Article 46(2) requires the trial chamber to
"take into account such factors as the gravity of the crime and the individual circumstances of the convicted person".

It took awhile because I wanted to get the quote exact and the UN does not like to make it easy to track their actions.

Luis, neither of us thinks very highly of either the UN or Castro's government but unfortunately Castro's Cuba IS the 'State' of record in Article 47(2), (a), (b), & (c) above. Perhaps the provisions of Article 46(2) explain, at least partially, the broad range of sentences metered out. I know this is not what you wanted to hear, but you did ask me to provide it and I did promise to answer all questions honestly. And we were just starting to agree on some points.....sorry.

Thanks for the information.

I'm sure that the law you posted will be what the regime's thugs, and its apologists, will try to hide behind when faced with world opinion on its actions, but it will be done only by the most vile of the vile, Fidel and his useful idiots; because even the UN condemns Fidel's lack of respect for International Law

"because even the UN condemns Fidel's lack of respect for International Law "

So do I Luis, so do I. It's been interesting my friend. You are the most knowlegable person I have ever talked with on the abuses of Castro's regime and those abuses are obviously very close to your heart. I think you and I are both 'law and order' advocates, I just feel that individual responsibilty for one's actions should be universal and you feel that it can't be until the chains of the world's dictators are broken. To me, that creates a legally responsible vs. legally exempt rift in world justice that I will never be able to endorse. To you, it is simply a necessary, temporary correction until the world is a better place for us all. I guess this difference between us will always exist.

Despite our rhetoric, I do respect your opinion and your right to hold it. I have also tried to answer every question you (and sarasmom) have asked in a logical, honest fashion and to express my most sincerely held beliefs. I can't say that 'it's been fun', the subject matter is much to serious for fun, but you have pushed me to re-evaluate my beliefs. I haven't changed my beliefs (nor, I'm sure, have you), but it is never wrong to re-evaluate any belief. I really enjoy FR, and yes I did lurk for those 5 years. Our little running debate has, however, kept me from having the time to enjoy any other threads, so I'll be signing off on this one to see what else is going on around the forum. I'll be watching for your tagline--you are very interesting.

RyeWhiskeyJoe

PS-The only question of yours I never answered was why do MIGS shoot down Cessnas? In this very imperfect world, Luis, I think it is because they can--with very little threat of retaiation in kind.

OK, I'm going to give this one more try.

I've got to side with Cuba on this one.
20 posted on 04/12/2003 9:58 AM EDT by republicofdavis

LG, your pulling up of this quote was a cheap debating trick. I have explained many times at great length that I was really commenting on the slow pace of US justice and I also explained that it was a flippant remark and that I would no longer offer such remarks (I am relatively new to posting). So for you to pull it out at the end of a long and substantive discussion and assert that it means I stand with Castro is deliberately dishonest.

There seem to be two conversations going on here: You two are engaged in a specific discussion about whether what happened to these men was proper. In order to further that discussion I've tried to engage in an academic dialogue about what are the limits of possible harm to others that can be tolerated. In fact, LG began that discussion in post 182. I answered in Post 185 and awaited his position on that point, which never came. Instead, I get back from both of you that nothing happened to these people.

I will accept that this hijacking was not as bad as the hijackings I'm accustomed to, where people are put in fear and danger. We'll call it "hijacking-lite." But I will not accept your characaterization of me as standing with Castro. In fact, in Post 113, I advocated a US-led overthrow of Castro which LG declined. Fine, but don't say that makes me pro-Castro.

Sarasmom, you win. There's no question that the punishment did not fit the crime, given all the facts as reported (and I have seen the post with the discussion with the passengers). Certainly American standards of due process were not followed. So what's going to be done about it? You say the world shrugs and you're right, because the leading opinion-makers are actually pro-Castro. I would say we should facilitate his removal but I guess the strategy is to wait til he dies.

"In order to further that discussion I've tried to engage in an academic dialogue about what are the limits of possible harm to others that can be tolerated."

Except that punishment is not set in accordance to what could have possibly happened, but it is set on what DID happen. And that's what wrong with this whole argument, the hijackers were not tried and punished using any sort of standard other than defiance for the Cuban government. In Cuba, that carries the death penalty, without possibility of either defense, or reprieve.

I had to wait a few days until I could sit down and read about this execution. You see, I was in the bakery picking up an order of "pastelitos" to take to an award ceremony at a high school, and the women in the bakery were so upset because they had been listening to the news on Miami Cuban radio and told me of how the mother of one of the men killed BY FIRING SQUAD was 19 YEARS OLD! Castro's goons came to her house in the middle of the night and and took him away for trial, and then they came to her house again and said to the mother, "You can go see your son now, he's at such and such plot of ground, in HIS GRAVE." I don't think THAT will ever be reported on CNN, et al.

So I spent the day at the high school looking at all the 17 and 18 year olds and couldn't help thinking about this poor kid being executed and his poor mother.

Do you know which of the victims was the 19 year old? I noticed two Sephardic names above, Isaac and Montoya, and I'm reminded of Jose Cohen! His kids are still in Cuba as far as I know! So is the little girl whose mother came with Elisabeth Bretons! Never forget: Jimmy Carter and CNN.

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