Safeguarding peace and public safety in Cuba

HAVANA, Cuba, Jul 15 (ACN) The chief prosecutor of the Division of Criminal Processes of the Attorney General's Office of the Republic of Cuba, Lisnay Maria Mederos, said that some of the videos recorded during the riots on Sunday show criminally liable acts that will be prosecuted in criminal courts as per the Cuban laws.

During the TV program Hacemos Cuba, Mederos explained that investigation, forensic and operative actions are already underway to document the violations and present legal evidence to the Prosecutor's Office and the Courts to prove the participation of these people in the events.

Maria Mederos pointed out that the footage collected shows several crimes in process and the people involved in them for different reasons.

The Prosecutor's Office is in charge of leading the criminal investigation, as established in the Constitution, which means ensuring the correct compliance of the law in accordance with the due process and the rights of the accused.

“We are also defining personal participation in order to determine who organized, who instigated, who financed the actions and who committed the crimes as such,” she explained. “We will hold both the perpetrators and their accomplices criminally liable, and we will free of all responsibility those who took part in a demonstration out of annoyance, those who just were around or passing through, etc., and didn’t actually commit any crime.”

Colonel Moraima Bravet, head of the General Division of Criminal Investigation of the Ministry of the Interior (MININT), said that this is an investigation that they will take all the way to the end.

“Our Cuba hails peace, order and public safety as precious goods that the Revolution guarantees. What we saw on Sunday is not our reality,” Bravet emphasized.

She explained that the vast majority of the detainees were not people complaining about something they dislike, but individuals with criminal records of disobedience, threats, assault, contempt, breaking and entering, public disorder, possession of weapons, resistance, etc.

Bravet recognized that breaking and entering has been one of the most common crimes during these days, aggravated when the perpetrator commits the crime during a hurricane, an earthquake or any other public calamity, in this case the COVID-19 pandemic. Likewise, most of those involved were between the ages of 25 and 35, and the use of minors to commit a crime is another aggravating circumstance.

She highlighted the severity of the measures in the cases where patrol cars were overturned and police officers were attacked with Molotov cocktails, stones and machetes, because the authorities will not allowed criminals to steal from us the peace that we breathe in our country.