Guilty of the crime of theft, he was a 34-year-old man with “disorderly civic behavior.”
14ymedio, Havana, April 9, 2025 — The adjective “exemplary” now forms an integral part of the vocabulary of the official press about the trials of rustlers in Cuba: all judicial trials in Granma province and others have their moral. So it happened with the thief of two horses in San Antonio del Sur who was sentenced to three years in prison in Guantánamo, whose case received national circulation this Wednesday.
The accused, guilty of theft, was a 34-year-old man with “disruptive civic behavior,” who entered a paddock in the town of Playa Sabanalamar. He cut a wire fence, entered the farm where the two horses were tied up, mounted one and guided the other with a rope.
The police captured him as he rode towards the Caujerí Valley, a rural area characterized by poverty, in the community of El Oro. By that time, the owner of the horses had given notice to the authorities, who, in a display of speed uncommon in these robberies, intercepted him.
Chased by the agents, the thief spurred on the horses and tried to flee “in a high-speed race”
Cubadebate narrates the scene as if it were a western movie. Chased by the agents, the thief spurred on the horses and tried to flee “in a high-speed race.” He carelessly threw a backpack on the ground, whose contents were the tools of his trade: a rope, “with thin, plastic cord,” a pointed knife and a wallet with money and his identity documents.
Identity card in hand, the agents had no trouble finding the thief’s address. They went to his house and arrested him there. They found that he was a “suspect in the commission of criminal acts against property” related to other livestock thefts -although he had no criminal record – and had “close links with persons of inappropriate conduct,” which could be a suggestion, used by the official press on other occasions, that he belongs to a gang of rustlers.
Another comment raises suspicions about his mental state, since Cubadebate emphasizes that the thief was “physically and mentally fit,” and that he only performed “occasional work on his father’s farm.” It is reported that several articles were finally confiscated from him.
This time, the description of the exemplary trial did not include the identity of the accused, a practice that was already common on Facebook profiles related to the Ministry of the Interior, and which used to be published by the official press itself, especially when it came to corrupt local cadres.
This time, the description of the exemplary trial did not include the identity of the accused
One last piece of information provided by the media is significant: the witnesses at the trial appeared to be other thieves, “who are under the control” of the authorities. However it is not clear whether they had a direct relationship with the accused, if they were accomplices or if they simply contributed to the exemplary character of the trial.
Crimes related to livestock “are increasing in the territory,” the report admits. Theft, illegal slaughter, failure of owners to declare the births and deaths of their animals as required by law, and administrative traps of all kinds characterize the livestock sector of the Island, whose control has become – with little success so far – a matter of State.
Last February, after ten months of inspections and surveillance, the Ministry of Agriculture revealed that there are 2,914,009 cows left in the country, an alarming figure that gives the measure of the country’s livestock debacle.
The “survivors” were counted during a “high control exercise” that mobilized hundreds of police and inspectors throughout the year, and which was not successful because of the reticence and obstacles placed in the way by some ranchers. Left to their own devices, after having repeatedly denounced the police’s inaction and the increase in violence by the rustlers, it was the ranchers themselves who had to stand guard and take action against the danger, often with a machete in hand, in the absence of firearms.
The picture has changed little or not at all since then, and exemplary trials are now the strategy that the State seems to be pursuing in this and other areas, such as energy or corporate corruption, to discourage criminals in an increasingly hungry country.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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