Camagüey Court Shutters State Security Crime Division Due to Low Activity

The Provincial People's Court in Camagüey has decided to close its specialized division for crimes against state security. This decision, recently announced in the Official Gazette of the Republic of Cuba, is framed as a technical reorganization due to a "low volume of cases." However, it raises eyebrows given that the Cuban judicial system is an essential component of the state's repressive machinery.

Official records reveal that from 2021 to 2024, only eleven cases concerning state security crimes were processed in the province—five in 2021, two in 2023, and four in 2024. This prompted the People's Supreme Court to dissolve the specialized division and transfer its duties to the First Criminal Chamber.

Implications of Judicial Reorganization

Beneath the bureaucratic language of "resource optimization" and "staffing challenges," this move could signify a decrease in politically motivated trials in the region or a shift in the regime's mechanisms of control and surveillance. Although the decision doesn't eliminate these crimes from the judicial system—cases will still be addressed by another division—it does alter the institutional framework specifically dedicated to such issues.

More Judges Than Trials

Specialized divisions for state security offenses have been crucial in the judicial repression of dissent in Cuba. They have prosecuted numerous individuals from the July 11, 2021, protests and other demonstrations, along with dissidents, activists, artists, and independent journalists. Charged with sedition, contempt, public disorder, or enemy propaganda, many faced harsh sentences, sometimes exceeding 20 years in prison.

Rather than ensuring justice, these divisions are widely perceived as instruments of repression, legitimizing the criminalization of political dissent. The closure of one such division, even if partial and localized, could indicate a reorganization of state control rather than an opening.

The division being dismantled reportedly had more personnel than cases in some years, as acknowledged in the agreement. While it claims to reorganize staffing without layoffs or direct impact on citizens, it also notes "difficulty in filling vacancies," including the position of president of the First Criminal Chamber.

Centralization of Judicial Power

These judicial adjustments, portrayed as technical reorganizations, might also reflect a lack of human resources within the Cuban judicial system and an internal push to reduce costs and streamline structures amid an intense economic crisis. The First Criminal Chamber, now responsible for state security cases in Camagüey and Ciego de Ávila, will wield even more power. This chamber will handle not only the most severe crimes (with sentences exceeding eight years) but also cases previously deemed direct threats to the state.

This reorganization could lead to less public visibility for political trials, as they become absorbed into the broader penal system. It might also signal increased centralization of judicial control, concentrating the interpretation and enforcement of these offenses in fewer hands.