In Cuba, stealing oil from an electrical transformer was, until recently, theft: a property crime punishable by months or a few years in prison. Today, that same act can be classified as sabotage, It is a crime "against the security of the State," with sentences ranging from 7 to 15 years in prison. In its aggravated forms, the penalties can reach between 10 and 30 years, life imprisonment, or even the death penalty.
It should be noted that there were no changes to the law, no debate in the National Assembly, and no new regulation was published. What did occur was a four-page document: the Opinion 475, approved in May 2025 by the Governing Council of the Supreme People's Court, the body that directs all judges in the country.
The ruling states that “acts of vandalism” that steal, damage, alter or harm components of railways, transport, photovoltaic parks, generator sets, telecommunications and the electrical system, “in addition to other criminal acts of a similar nature, which undermine critical infrastructure”, They are classified as sabotage —crime against the security of the State, articles 125 and 126 of the Penal Code, with penalties of 7 to 15 years and, in its aggravated form, of 10 to 30 years, life imprisonment or death— and not as property crimes, with eventual intent being sufficient. The opinion itself acknowledges that these same acts had been classified as damage, theft, robbery with force or misappropriation.
Since 2025, the official press has reported on “sabotage” trials against individuals accused of stealing dielectric oil from transformers and other components of the electrical system, with the courts themselves describing the proceedings as “exemplary.” In August 2026, the authorities admitted More than 460 criminal investigations for crimes against the electrical system, with more than 300 complaints for theft of dielectric oil alone, 87 of the accused under provisional detention and Sentences imposed in 2026 were “mostly between 9 and 20 years of deprivation of liberty.”.
Why oil?
Dielectric oil is the liquid that cools and insulates electrical transformers. Amid blackouts and fuel shortages, some people are extracting it to resell as homemade diesel.
The consequences of this practice are real and serious: a transformer without oil can burn out and leave entire communities without electricity. In one documented case, the outage lasted for more than 30 days.
No one disputes that this conduct constitutes a crime. The question is different: Who decides how many years of prison are appropriate and under what rules?
Cubalex reviewed the full texts published in the Official Gazette. This is what the regulations themselves and related official documents state:
The Party dictates the policy regarding judges.
The Instruction 273, of 2022, The decree, which ordered the tightening of court procedures, begins by explaining that it was issued because "the top leadership of the Party and the State" issued "general directives".
In other words, the regulations themselves explicitly acknowledge the influence of the Communist Party of Cuba on judicial policy.
That instruction, and subsequently Opinion 475, also regulate the so-called «"exemplary trials"»: processes that are organized when requested by "the political authorities" of the territory and whose dissemination in the media must be approved by the management of the Supreme People's Court.
Opinion 475 orders judges to evaluate preventive detention taking into account the "impact of the facts".
This criterion does not respond to the risk of flight, as required by international standards, but to the impact that the authorities attribute to the crime.
The result, according to figures from the Prosecutor's Office itself, is that 87 out of every 100 defendants await trial in prison.
Opinion 476 and the penalties for "the chemist"«
One month later, in June 2025, the Opinion 476, referring to "the chemical", a synthetic drug whose trafficking and consumption has spread in recent years on the island.
This document eliminated the minimum amount of drugs required to apply the most severe penalties. Therefore, any amount, however small, can lead the court to apply the aggravated form of the crime.
A court summarized it particularly clearly when announcing an exemplary trial in Holguín on Facebook. According to the post, the act serves "a prophylactic and preventative function for people with criminal potential.".
It's worth reading again: It does not talk about punishing those who committed a crime, but about scaring those who might commit it.
The rules that today The same rules that apply to someone who steals oil from a transformer or sells "chemicals" can be applied to anyone else tomorrow.
The definition of "sabotage" already includes damage to transportation, railways, communications, and "other acts of a similar nature." This last expression leaves open the possibility of including conduct not precisely defined in the law, the interpretation of which is left to the court.
When judges receive orders from the Party, trials are organized at the request of political authorities and pretrial detention becomes the rule, not the exception; what is at stake is not only the fate of an accused person.
The stakes are everyone's right to an independent judge, to a clear law that precedes the act, and to a proportionate punishment.. These are rights recognized in the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man and in international treaties signed by Cuba.
Cubalex has located, verified, and archived the full texts of these regulations, as well as evidence of their application. These materials are being presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights as proof that a human rights system operates in Cuba. state of emergency without declaringNo one has formally decreed it, but its effects are applied every day in the courts.
If you or a family member has been prosecuted for sabotage or under these rules, you can safely contact Cubalex.
Documenting each case is a way to prevent these violations from going unreported.