Article 189.3 of the Cuban Criminal Code: A New Face of the Author´s Social Dangerousness

Abstract

Justification: The dangerousness of the offender has historically been used by authoritarian regimes as a tool of political control, making it necessary to examine whether current Cuban criminal law had overcome this logic after the 2022 reform. Objective: The study aimed to analyze the historical evolution of social dangerousness in Cuban Criminal Law, from the 1936 Social Defense Code to Law 151 of 2022, and to critically assess whether the crime of disobedience regulated under Article 189.3 reproduced, in a new form, the logic characteristic of Criminal Law of the author. Methodology: A qualitative, documentary-legal approach was used, grounded in the dogmatic analysis of Cuban legislation, international criminal law doctrine, and the jurisprudence of the Supreme People's Court. Results: It was determined that Article 189.3, combined with Council of Ministers Agreement 9151/2021 and Opinion 472/2023, empowered non-judicial police agents to impose rights-restricting measures whose repeated non-compliance directly constituted a crime, violating the principles of legality, culpability, and judicial reserve. Conclusion: It was concluded that this regulation constituted a Special Criminal Law problem affecting dignity as a constitutional legal value, materially reproducing the logic of pre-criminal dangerousness despite its formal suppression.