o the obligation of contributing to the public expenses
of the State, province, and municipality.

TITLE IV

RIGHTS GUARANTEED BY THIS CONSTITUTION

SECTION FIRST

INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS

ART. 11. All Cubans are equal before the law. The Republic does not
recognize any personal prerogatives.

ART. 12. No law shall have retroactive effect, except when penal and
favorable to the defendant.

ART. 13. Obligations of a civil nature arising out of contracts or other
acts or omissions shall not be nullified by either the legislative or
the executive power.

ART. 14. The penalty of death shall in no case be imposed for offenses
of political character, said offenses to be defined by law.

ART. 15. No person shall be detained except in the cases and in the
manner prescribed by law.

ART. 16. Every arrested person shall be set at liberty or placed at the
disposal of the competent judge or court within twenty-four hours
immediately following the arrest.

ART. 17. All arrests shall be terminated, or turned into formal
imprisonments, within seventy-two hours, immediately after the delivery
of the arrested person to the judge or court of competent jurisdiction.
Within the same time notice shall be served upon the interested party of
the action taken.

ART. 18. No person shall be imprisoned except by order of a competent
judge or court.

The order directing the imprisonment shall be affirmed or reversed, upon
the proper hearing of the prisoner, within seventy-two hours next
following the committal.

ART. 19. No person shall be prosecuted or sentenced except by a
competent judge or court, by virtue of laws in force, prior to the
commission of the offense, and in the manner and form prescribed by said
laws.

ART. 20. Every person arrested or imprisoned without the formalities of
law, or outside of the cases foreseen in this constitution or the laws,
shall be set at liberty at his own request or that of any citizen.

The law shall determine the form of summary proceedings to be followed
in this case.

ART. 21. No one shall be bound to testify against himself, neither shall
he be compelled to testify against his consort, nor against his
relatives within the fourth degree of consanguinity or second of
affinity.

ART. 22. The secrecy of correspondence and other private documents is
inviolable, and neither shall be seized or examined except by order of a
competent authority and with the formalities prescribed by the law