The death penalty won't help build safe communities, according to the Greater Caribbean for Life (GCL) human rights organization. In a press release issued in commemoration of the 13th World Day Against the Death Penalty, which was observed on October 10, the organization said it is striving "to encourage retentionist countries in the Greater Caribbean region to adopt non-lethal means of dealing with crime and violence". This year's World Day Against the Death Penalty was geared toward raising awareness of the need to reduce the use of the death penalty for drug-related offenses.
Cuba is the only country in the region that applies the death penalty to drug crimes, the release said. According to the World Coalition Against the Death Penalty, of the 58 countries and territories retaining the death penalty, 33 apply the death penalty for drug-related crimes and 13 of the 33 countries have carried out an execution for drug-related offenses in the past five years.
In the Greater Caribbean region: 11 countries are abolitionist in law: Colombia, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador (for ordinary crimes only), Haiti, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Suriname and Venezuela; one country is considered abolitionist in practice: Grenada; and13 countries are retentionist: Antigua and Barbuda, The Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Cuba, Dominica, Guatemala, Guyana, Jamaica, St. Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, and Trinidad and Tobago.
The World Day Against the Death Penalty coincided with discussions on the imposition of capital punishment in some Caribbean countries. In Barbados, a bill is before Parliament seeking to alter the country's constitution in order to remove the provision authorizing a mandatory sentence of death for murder. In Trinidad and Tobago, Chief Justice Ivor Archie has stated that he is "yet to find a convincing argument in favor of the death penalty". The last execution in The Bahamas occurred 15 years ago. One person remains on Death Row.
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