Alas Tensas warns about the lack of protection for minors in relationships with adult men
14ymedio, Havana, September 7, 2026 / Camila González Arias, 17, was beaten to death by her partner, a 29-year-old man, on June 21. The crime occurred at the aggressor’s home in La Palma, in the Havana municipality of Arroyo Naranjo, according to information verified by the Alas Tensas Gender Observatory .
According to the independent platform’s account, the young woman had attended a pool party that day with her partner, Carlos René Alfonso Gorejuria. Hours later, they went to his home, where he beat the teenager to death.
Family sources cited by Alas Tensas report that the perpetrator’s mother tried to stop him and was also assaulted. She then called the police, but by the time officers arrived, Camila was already dead. The assailant was arrested by the authorities.
Camila González lived in the Havana neighborhood of Lawton with her grandmother and her 12-year-old sister. The teenager helped care for the family and kept her younger sister company, as their mother and grandmother were ill.
“The situation is quite worrying because there is a total crisis within the institutions: the institutional apparatus is not functioning.”
Yanelys Núñez, coordinator of Alas Tensas, told 14ymedio that she considers the number of femicides registered this year alarming – already exceeding those of 2025 – and pointed out the lack of response from Cuban institutions as especially worrying.
“The situation is quite worrying because there is a total crisis within the institutions: the institutional apparatus is not functioning,” the Cuban activist pointed out. Núñez questioned the silence of the state-run Federation of Cuban Women, despite having received funding from international cooperation, including resources from Canada, for awareness campaigns and training for police officers and other officials.
Núñez also links the island’s energy crisis to increased vulnerability among women. The Observatory has documented communities where power outages disrupt telephone communications and make it difficult to contact the police or request an ambulance after an assault.
In addition she noted that Alas Tensas has more than 12 open cases of femicide that occurred this year, which are still pending verification, so the number of victims could increase. “The situation is terrible, especially because of the silence on the part of the authorities regarding the number of femicide cases. We have documented cases of victims as young as 17, but also of 81: the entire age range and in every province of the country.”
Camila’s murder thus adds to a year in which independent records already exceed the figures of previous years.
The case of Camila González was investigated for several weeks by Alas Tensas before being added to their registry. The organization notes that the young woman is the fifth minor murdered this year in circumstances that can be considered gender-based violence. Previously included in their registry were Katherine Cruz Aguilera, 14; Gabriela Herrera Rodríguez, 7; Camila Aguilera Peña, 12; and Merlin Noay, 17.
According to the Observatory, the age difference between the perpetrator and the victim highlights the lack of protection faced by adolescent girls involved in relationships with adult men. Cuban legislation established 18 as the minimum age for marriage in 2022. However, the Penal Code does not establish a general prohibition on sexual relations between adults and adolescents aged 12 to 17. Legal protection depends on circumstances such as the existence of violence, intimidation, deception, abuse of authority, or other power imbalances.
The Cuban Observatory on Gender Equality reported that Cuban courts tried a total of 49 cases in 2025 of women aged 15 and over murdered for gender-related reasons. This figure was presented as a reduction compared to the 76 cases tried in 2024 and the 60 in 2023. However, a legal expert consulted by IPS cautioned that these figures do not necessarily represent the femicides that occurred during those years, explaining that the cases tried in 2025 primarily correspond to events that took place in 2023 and 2024, due to delays in the judicial process.
Camila’s murder adds to a year in which independent records have already surpassed the figures from previous years. With this case, Alas Tensas raises its count of femicides in Cuba to 51 so far in 2026. This figure does not coincide with the count by 14ymedio, due to differences in the criteria used to classify some violent deaths of women.
The latest tally from this newspaper stood at 45 victims after the murder of Yadelaine Roque Torres , 25, who was attacked by her ex-partner in front of her home, in a rural area near El Cobre, in Santiago de Cuba.
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