7 sentenced for murder of 4 would-be emigrants

Seven Cubans were tried and sentenced for the killing of four citizens who had hired their services to leave Cuba illegally, the daily Granma reported Monday (Feb. 16).

The crime was reported by Granma on June 14 of last year and reprinted in Progreso Weekly that same day. For details, click here.

The defendants were tried on various charges, including murder, theft with violence, intimidation, falsification of documents and trafficking in human beings. Their sentences were listed as follows:

Jorge Salazar Ricardo (life imprisonment), Reinier Armas García (life imprisonment), Rafael Sánchez Hernández (25 years’ imprisonment), Yassel Montero Vásquez (22 years), Jorge Suárez León (8), Yusniel Grimont Sánchez (8) and Michel García Urgelles (10).

In addition, Salazar and Armas will have to indemnify the families of the victims. All defendants will lose their right to vote and to hold any administrative jobs after their release. They will also be barred from traveling abroad.

The defendants may appeal the sentences, but only on procedural grounds.

According to the charges, the defendants, “by common agreement, decided to conceive and execute a plan wherein they would simulate the organization of an illegal departure by sea from the national territory toward the United States of America, with the aim of keeping the money that the interested parties would pay them to arrange for their voyage.”

The perpetrators arranged for a bicycle-taxi driver to deliver five would-be emigrants to Niña Bonita beach, in Bauta, Artemisa province, and proceeded to kill four of them. The taxi driver was unaware of the plan and escaped.

The well-publicized sentences are expected to serve as a deterrent to anyone organizing illegal emigration. The trial and sentencing came only weeks after U.S. and Cuban government officials met in Havana to discuss “safe, legal and orderly migration” between the two countries.

That meeting, on Jan. 21, was followed by the first direct talks between Havana and Washington to reestablish diplomatic relations.

In the weeks since both governments announced plans to restore relations, the U.S. Coast Guard has reported a spike in illegal departures from Cuba. In December alone, 481 Cubans were halted at sea or landed on U.S. shores, a 117 percent increase since December 2013, according to the Coast Guard.

[Photo at top is of Baracoa Beac in Bauta, Artemisa Province.]