Summary
Decree 217 of 1997, which restricts the residence in Havana of people from other provinces, turns a constitutional right into an administrative authorization and facilitates discriminatory practices and arbitrary detentions.
The operation violates rights recognized in the Cuban Constitution and international standards, including freedom of movement and residence, the inviolability of the home, equality before the law, the presumption of innocence and due process.
Cubalex denounces that these raids disproportionately affect people in vulnerable situations and demands information about the 71 people taken into custody, an end to public stigmatization, and the repeal of Decree 217 of 1997.
A police operation The operation carried out on October 30 in the Havana municipality of San Miguel del Padrón, in which 71 people were taken to the National Revolutionary Police (PNR) station, is not an isolated incident. In reality, it forms part of the same restrictive pattern of human rights that Cubalex has previously documented. This pattern is based on a legal framework designed to restricting the freedom of movement of Cuban citizens within their own country.
While these rules are selectively applied against opposition members, activists, and independent journalists for purposes of political control, in operations like this one they are applied en masse against vulnerable people, who are presented as criminals simply for residing in Havana without official authorization. The official publication does not specify how many of the total number of detainees were “undocumented or illegal,” however, it mentions it as one of the reasons for the arrest.
What the official publication reveals: a mass arrest heralded as a trophy
The information about the operation comes from the authorities themselves. The Facebook profile “Heroes in blue in Cuba“The statement, which identifies with the PNR, announced that in a joint operation between the Ministry of the Interior (MININT) and the police, carried out “in all the People's Councils” of the municipality, officers “knocked on doors” and took 71 people to the police station. The publication groups the participants into very different categories: “Undocumented and illegal people in the capital with maladjusted behavior”, debtors of fines, drug possession, disturbance of the peace, prostitution, possession of bladed weapons, illicit economic activity and perpetrators of criminal acts pending arrest.
By placing on the same list those who allegedly committed crimes and those who lack an administrative permit to live in Havana, Authorities equate internal migration with criminality.
To this day, it is unknown how long these individuals were detained, whether they were informed of the reasons for their detention, whether they had access to a lawyer or their families, whether their homes were entered with a warrant from a competent authority, or whether any of them were fined or ordered to return to their province. It is also unknown how many people fall into each category. These omissions prevent us from knowing the true extent of the impact, but what the authorities themselves have admitted is enough to identify serious human rights violations.
The national legal framework: no one is “illegal” in their own country
The category of “undocumented and illegal people in the capital” has its origin in the Decree no. 217 of 1997, Internal Migration Regulations for the City of Havana. This provision requires that any person from another province obtain an administrative permit before establishing residency in the capital, imposes housing requirements that are applied at the discretion of the authorities, and establishes the obligation to return immediately to their place of origin, along with financial penalties, for those residing in Havana without official recognition. In other words, the regulation transforms a right into a concession from the State and the absence of proper procedures into grounds for police harassment.
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This legal framework contravenes the provisions of the Article 52 of the 2019 Constitution, which recognizes that people have the freedom to enter, remain in, travel through, and leave the national territory, and to change their domicile or residence. It also violates Article 42 of the Constitution, which enshrines equality before the law and prohibits discrimination based on national or territorial origin, among other conditions. In practice, the operation disproportionately affects people from other provinces and impoverished sectors, such as those who cannot pay fines or survive through unauthorized economic activities.
Furthermore, the practice of “knocking on doors” in every People’s Council within a municipality constitutes a massive intrusion into the private sphere, protected by Article 49 of the Constitution, which recognizes the inviolability of the home. This is compounded by the use of the expression “disruptive conduct,” a legally indeterminate concept that does not describe any specific behavior prohibited by law and leaves the decision of whom to arrest in the hands of the officers. Finally, the public display of those brought in as guilty parties disregards the presumption of innocence and the right to due process recognized in Articles 94 and 95 of the Constitution.
Violation of international standards
This operation not only violates the Cuban Constitution. It also violates international standards of human rights. Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaims that “everyone has the right to freedom of movement and residence within the borders of each state.” In the Inter-American context, the American Declaration of the Rights and Duties of Man, which the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) applies to Cuba as a member state of the Organization of American States, recognizes in Article VIII the right to establish residence and move freely within the national territory, and in Article IX the inviolability of the home.
In it International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights The International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) establishes in its Article 12 that “every person lawfully within the territory of a State shall have the right to freedom of movement within that territory and to freely choose his residence.” The UN Human Rights Committee, in its General Observation No. 27, He clarified that nationals of a state are always legally within its territory and that the enjoyment of this right should not depend on any particular objective or motive of the individual. From this perspective, labeling a Cuban as “illegal” for living in Havana has no basis whatsoever in international law.
The mass transport of people for administrative reasons is also incompatible with the prohibition of arbitrary detention. According to the General Observation No. 35 According to the Human Rights Committee, deprivation of liberty must be lawful, necessary, and proportionate in each specific case, and arbitrariness includes elements of injustice, unpredictability, and lack of due process. Detaining a person for not having a residence permit or owing a fine does not pass this test. Furthermore, General Observation No. 32, The resolution, also issued by the aforementioned committee and whose content relates to the right to a fair trial and equality before the courts, states that public authorities must refrain from prejudging the outcome of a process, which contradicts official messages that present those being prosecuted as guilty.
In the case of women driven by the “practice of prostitution”, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), ratified Cuba's obligation to protect them from exploitation, not to publicly expose them or treat them as criminals, is to require the State to do so. Finally, the considerations of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights contained in the following are applicable to internally displaced persons affected by this operation: Principles and practical guidelines on the protection of the human rights of migrants in vulnerable situations, who recognize that these people are at greater risk of suffering violations and abuses and that, therefore, they should receive greater protection from States.
The operation in San Miguel del Padrón shows the other side of the same mechanism that Today he threatens opponents like Dayán Melián Castro. On the one hand, Decree No. 217 is selectively used to expel critical voices from the capital. On the other, it is applied en masse against vulnerable populations, normalizing internal deportation and giving it an appearance of legitimacy in the eyes of society. In both cases, The Cuban state makes place of birth a condition for the exercise of rights and uses police coercion to enforce restrictions that are inconsistent with its own Constitution and international standards.
Cubalex denounces these raids as repressive, discriminatory, and incompatible with international obligations to respect and guarantee human rights. We demand that Cuban authorities provide information on the situation of those detained and on the fulfillment of due process guarantees in their cases, cease the public stigmatization of individuals who have not been tried, and repeal Decree No. 217 so that no Cuban is treated as an illegal immigrant in their own country.