Going to a movie theater to see adult films, buying a beer in some bar, or being hired as an employee, are some of the proofs that we have arrived at the age of majority. When we are 14 or 15 years old, every day brings us closer to that legal adulthood we await so anxiously. We approach a milestone that we flaunt in front of friends, while reminding our parents that we are no longer so small, that they can no longer treat us like children. But the sensations associated with reaching 16 are quite distinct from those that overwhelm us when our children reach the age of legal responsibility. It's exactly then that we realize how physically and mentally immature they are to take on so much responsibility.
I am reflecting on this because my son will reach the age of majority this coming August. He will then be ready-according to the law-to buy alcoholic beverages, to be drafted into the army, or to go to prison. From that moment, nothing he does will be treated by the criminal code as if he were a minor. He could even be called to die or to kill in a war, a not ridiculous option in today's Cuba. All the teenagers born in the difficult year of 1995 will pass through, in this 2011, the barrier between childhood and adulthood. And I say, without maternal excess, that they are too young, too fragile, to face the burden of being considered adults by a legal system that does not correspond to international norms.
Several weeks ago, the United Nations asked the Cuban authorities to raise the age of majority to 18 years. But there is little hope that such a demand will become fact. Were it to be successful, all the women between 16 and 17 who are selling their bodies to tourists would become minors trapped in child prostitution. And postponing the end of childhood would also deprive the government of a great number of voters-easier to manipulate-in local elections. And, of course, it would temporarily prolong the ascendancy of parents over their children, to the detriment of that of the State over these young citizens.
Now that I am more than twice the age required to exchange the card of a minor for the ID of an adult, I realize they robbed me of a couple of years; that an incorrect legislation placed a responsibility on my shoulders that I did not have the discernment to assume. At that time, I enjoyed it as if it were a letter of freedom, but today I see it as the loss of a legal protection that was my right.
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CHAPTER XVI: About illegal sacrifice of major cattle and meet transportation and sell.
Article 240.1 (modified)- Whom be found guilty of sacrificing major cattle without the state previous approval, shall be sentenced to imprisonment from 4 years up to 10 years
2.- Whom be found guilty of transporting and selling major cattle meet, shall be sentenced to imprisonment from 3 years up to 8 years
TITLE VIII: Crimes against the Life and Corporal Integrity
CHAPTER I: Homicide
Article 261: Whom be found guilty of killing another person, shall be sentenced to imprisonment from 7 years up to 15 years
So, what you find here is that a person who kill his cow and goes by mom’s and left there a leg for the old lady soup, can be jailed for 18 years……….. and…………. a person that kills another person can be jailed for 7 years!!!!!!
For Cuban dictatorship a cow is more important than a Cuban !!!!!!!……… I guess it is so because they need the cow to feed the American tourists they are waiting for!!!!!!!
In such a surreal scenario you can find possible news like the followings:
Teacher in Havana killed 12 years old student beating his head with a chair is sentenced to 8 years in prison.
And
Farmer found guilty of sacrificing his cow and sharing it with relatives, is sentenced to 15 years in prison.
Both news are real…………….
In a democratic country Amado Interian will be in jail and under investigation for the murder of a minor. The regime media has kept silence about the incident, and so far the regime hasn’t take any action to charge the murderer.
Link: An Adolescent is Killed for Trying to Eat Genips* in Havana
http://leyesdelaritzaen.wordpress.com/
Maybe this other history is better for you........ tens of thousands Cuban children between 16 and 18 years old were sent to fight regular and professional armies in Algeria, Ethiopia, Angola and Congo...... more than 25.000 casualties suffered this children's army along the years...... in castrofascist Cuba military service is mandatory and starts at 16.
The regime change of the age of majority and criminal responsibility from 18 to 16 years, gave it the legal framework to send minors to the fire squad. The Cuban Archives had proved the execution by fired squad of 22 minors from 1959 to May 2004. How many more minors have been killed and will be killed by the sadistic Castro brothers’ tyranny?
One thing that is unavoidable is change, and when it happens will not be possible to pardon and forget. It is absolutely necessary to judge and condemn the crimes perpetrated by the high-ranking officials of Castros’ tyranny. ¡Justice most be done!
Link: http://cubaarchive.org/home/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=43&Itemid=95