AVANA - Cuba, signaling a crackdown against antigovernment
activity and crime, unveiled harsh penalties yesterday against those who
''collaborate'' with the US government.
The planned legislation, which proposes the death penalty and life imprisonment for some offenses under the communist regime, follows a speech last month by President Fidel Castro in which he pledged to get tough on crime.
Meeting in an unscheduled session on the crime issue, the National Assembly considered two measures intended to boost security.
One sought to toughen penalties against increased crime, including murders, prostitution, and drug smuggling, which has accompanied the island's opening to investment and tourism.
It proposed the death sentence for serious cases of drug-trafficking, corruption of minors, and armed robbery, and recommended life imprisonment for violent robbery and house-breaking and the smuggling out of illegal emigrants.
''If we don't toughen the repression of this kind of conduct, this could damage our tourism,'' Cuba's Attorney-General Juan Escalona told reporters.
The other law cited the need for more penal defenses against what it called continuing attempts by the US government to damage Cuba's economy through sanctions and to subvert its political system.
''This bill ... gives legal backing to the sovereign will of the people of Cuba to defeat the annexationist intentions of the government of the United States of America,'' the text said.
Accusing the US authorities of financing and supporting ''counter-revolutionary and annexationist elements inside and outside Cuba,'' the bill proposed jail terms ranging up to 30 years for those who collaborated with the US government, its agencies or representatives.
This included supplying and seeking information that could be used by the US authorities to apply sanctions under the Helms-Burton law against the Cuban economy or foreign investors. The 1996 Helms-Burton law sharply tightened the longstanding US economic embargo against Cuba.
Also targeted by the law was the possession or dissemination of ''subversive'' literature produced by the US government, and collaboration or relations with radio or TV stations or written publications that sought to assist US attempts to damage or undermine Cuba's economy or society.