A Young Man Dies in Guanabacoa Presumably at the Hands of the Police

Hansel Ernesto Hernández Galiano. (Facebook/Maykel Osorbo)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 25 June 2020 — The death of Hansel Ernesto Hernández Galiano, allegedly at the hands of the police, has shocked the La Lima neighborhood in Guanabacoa in the city of Havana. According to the deceased’s aunt, Lenia Patiño, the 26-year-old was hit by a bullet fired by men in uniform.

“We, the family members, ask for mercy that this cruel act at the hands of our supposed national security may in no way go unpunished,” Patiño demanded in a text that she published on her Facebook profile on Thursday afternoon. However, the woman did not specify the initial reason for the altercation between Hernández and the agents.

“Because a police officer, a uniform, does not give the right to murder anyone in such a way,” added the woman in a text that immediately accumulated hundreds of comments. Some of the Internet users said that Hernández worked at the Guanabacoa bus terminal and that he was a “very calm” young man. A neighbor, who works in the same workplace as the father of the deceased, confirmed this information to 14ymedio.

“Why then did they have to go to their firearm and take a son from a mother, a father, a nephew from his aunt, a brother from his younger sister,” questioned Patiño, who insisted that the young man “was never armed.”

According to other sources, the bullet that the young man received entered him in the back “near the left kidney and came out from the right side of his chest.” The wake was held the same Wednesday night at the Guanabacoa funeral parlor. Witnesses present at the scene tell of a fight between the relatives of the deceased and some police officers who approached to give their condolences.

Several commentators demanded that the national television report the incident, as it did with the death of two police officers and the injuries suffered by two others a few weeks ago in Calabazar, south of the Cuban capital. “Put it on TV as they did with the one who killed the police,” demanded Internet user Lisandra Navarro.

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