Havana, Cuba.- Cuba expressed today in the context of the Universal Periodic Review (UPR) of human rights its rejection of the death penalty and the disposition to eliminate from its legislation that sanction that has not been applied since 2003.

When intervening in the exercise of the UPR, one of the main mechanisms of the Human Rights Council, the vice president of the Supreme Court of Cuba, Oscar Silvera, also pointed out that there is no condemned to this punishment, which has never been imposed on women or minors.

Silvera stated that the Penal Code establishes the death penalty among its sanctions, exceptionally for cases of very serious crimes, and mentioned the will to eliminate it when the conditions propitiate it.

We have been forced to this, with strict adherence to legality, judicial guarantees and the right to self-defense, to prevent and confront terrorist activities and crimes against the lives of its citizens, he pointed out.

According to the Cuban government, the terrorism executed against the Caribbean country has left more than 5,000 victims, among them nearly 3,500 fatalities, in actions framed in the regime change promoted and financed from the United States.

In the process of the UPR, several nations recognized the moratorium of Cuba in the application of the maximum penalty, and some of them requested its total elimination.