By ANITA SNOW
.c The Associated Press, Feb.
16
By Richard Lapper and Pascal Fletcher in
Havana
Financial
Times, February 16 1999
Cuba's communist government yesterday launched a crackdown on political opponents who collaborate with the US government, underlining its hostility to the recent modification of the US embargo.
A draft law designed to protect "national independence and the Cuban economy" lays down tough new punishments, including prison terms of up to eight years merely for the possession of information judged to be subversive. It was expected to be approved late yesterday or today.
The law, unveiled at an extraordinary session of Cuba's National Assembly of Popular Power, the country's legislative body, says alterations to the US embargo "do not signal any change in US policy towards our country because they are aimed at subverting the revolution and maintaining intact the iron blockade".
In January, US President Bill Clinton announced a number of measures, including a widening of the criteria for determining who can send cash remittances to Cuba, an increase in US-Cuba flights, and authorisation for the sale of US food and agricultural supplies to non- government entities in Cuba.
The Cuban draft legislation specifically cites the US Torricelli law of 1992, which it says approved financial help for anti-government activities by "counter-revolutionaries and annexationists", and the Helms-Burton legislation of 1996, which further tightened the embargo and targets international companies investing on the island. It said these were part of a "permanent aggression against Cuban independence".
The new law sharply restricts the supply, reproduction and circulation of sensitive information within Cuba. Anyone supplying information to the US that can be used to "reinforce the blockade against Cuba" faces a possible prison term of up to 15 years. The penalty rises to a maximum of 20 years if it involves a group of people or if information is acquired "surreptitiously". State employees using information gleaned at work face prison sentences of up to 30 years.
In a clause clearly aimed at clamping down on the activities of Cuban journalists who criticise the government in articles and commentaries in foreign media, the law proposes jail terms of up to eight years for collaborating with radio and TV stations and publications deemed to be assisting US policy.
The assembly also unveiled a separate law designed to tackle the growing wave of serious crime, including armed robbery, drug trafficking and prostitution, which has accompanied the island's increasing openness to foreign investment and tourism.
It proposes the death penalty for serious cases of drug trafficking, corruption of minors and armed robbery. The illegal smuggling of emigrants and violent assaults on persons and property would carry terms of life imprisonment.
"If we don't increase the repression against these kinds of behaviour, this could affect our tourism," said Juan Escalona, attorney general.