File No. 837.13/16.
[Untitled]
Habana , March 15, 1913.
The amnesty bill passed House yesterday in amended form, covering political and electoral crimes, as follows:
Amnesty is hereby granted for all crimes committed in connection with the rebellion of 1912; and for crimes of a similar character committed in connection with or in consequence of political or electoral struggles either by individuals or by the press when the penalty is not of the afflictive grade (as defined by code) excepting in the case of the press offenses against the law of nations. Such crimes in order to come within the terms of this amnesty shall have been committed prior to January 1 of the present year.
The so-called electoral offenses—including frauds and all pre-election and postelection personal assaults, etc., which can in any way be connected with “political struggles”—are now introduced for the first time.
Speaker Ferrara, seconded by Oscar Soto, the Congressman who acknowledged authorship of libellous attacks on Legation which appeared in Cuban newspaper, introduced a resolution providing for the appointment of a commission to investigate the behavior of the American Government.