ABSTRACT: After the executions a few days ago of Joe Angel Cordova in Texas and of Mark Hopkinson in Wyoming, radicals Sergio Stanzani, Emma Bonino, Paolo Vigevano, Marco Pannella and Sergio D'Elia sent a letter to Peter Secchia, American ambassador in Rome, to express their condemnation of the executions. The letter was sent also on behalf of the committee that promoted the parliamentary campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in the world, which was endorsed by over 600 parliamentarians and government officials, and hundreds of preeminent personalities in the field of culture, science and art.

The radicals, who had demonstrated the day before in front of the Cuban embassy to condemn the execution of Betancourt on the part of Fidel Castro's regime, in the letter to the American ambassador underlined that "our dissent is as firm and convinced as our consideration for the United States of America and for its principles of freedom, rule of law and political democracy", that "the distinction between democracy and totalitarian systems is not an ideological distinction, but one based on fundamental principles, the chief of which are the right to life and the rule of law", and that "democracy should differ from totalitarianism also with respect to the practice of the death penalty".

Moreover, the radicals expressed the hope that legal executions in the United States be suspended in the meantime.

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Rome, 24 January 1992

For the attention of

His Excellency Peter Secchia

American Ambassador

Rome

Excellency,

we are writing to you on behalf of the committee that promoted the parliamentary campaign for the abolition of the death penalty in the world. Such campaign has been endorsed by over 600 parliamentarians and government officials, and by hundreds of international personalities belonging to the cultural, scientific and artistic milieus. Herewith enclosed is a memo with the names of the most prestigious of such representatives.

By your intermediacy, we wish to express our reprobation to the Government of your Country for the executions carried out in Texas against Joe Angel Cordova and in Wyoming against Mark Hopkinson.

Our dissent is as firm and convinced as our consideration for the United States of America and for its principles of freedom, rule of law and political democracy, values which we fully share.

Yesterday, after the execution of Eduardo Diaz Betancourt, a number of militants of the Radical Party - a nonviolent and transnational transparty - demonstrated their condemnation of Fidel Castro's regime in front of the Cuban Embassy in Rome.

Today, after the execution of Joe Angel Cordova and of Mark Hopkinson in the United States, we are writing to you in the firm belief that the distinction between democracy and totalitarian systems is not an ideological distinction, but one based on fundamental principles, the chief of which are the right to life and the rule of law.

Your democracy and ours should differ from totalitarianism also with respect to the practice of the death penalty. The principle which should be affirmed as an individual right - the right of every living human being not to be killed in application of a law or of a decision of any public authority recognized by the law, for any reason - should be gradually but firmly introduced in State regulations, through laws. All the more so in the case of heinous crimes, which the State cannot respond to by resorting to a cruel practice.

May we ask you, Mr. Ambassador, to illustrate to the Government of your Country the core of our political position of democrats and militants of the rule of law and of nonviolence, of parliamentarians and personalities who take part in the campaign against the death penalty.

Moreover, we wish to express the hope that legal executions in the United States be suspended in the meantime.

Yours faithfully,

Sergio Stanzani Emma Bonino Paolo Vigevano

MP, First Secretary MP, President of Treasurer of

of the Radical Party the Radical Party the Radical Party

Marco Pannella Sergio D'Elia

European Parliamentarian, Federal Councillor of

President of the Federal Council R.P. the Radical Party

Tel. 39-6-689791 - Fax 39-6-6545396