An official profile describes the attacker as “a criminal, specifically a butcher and cattle trafficker.”
14ymedio, Havana, 20 September 2025 — The Ministry of the Interior quickly confirmed what was spreading like wildfire on social media: National Revolutionary Police Captain Leonel Mesa Rodríguez was found “early Friday morning” with “six stab wounds and a gunshot wound to the head” in the La Reforma People’s Council of the municipality of Caibarién, in the province of Villa Clara.
According to the brief report published in the State newspaper Granma, the officer, who was a sector chief, “was traveling in full uniform” between Remedios and Caibarién “on the assigned motorcycle,” which was found next to his body. Among the few details provided about the police officer are his age, which indicates that he was 62 years old and that “with almost 24 years of service, he was always on the front lines of the fight against crime and a faithful defender of internal order.”
The article also promises “a resounding response of revolutionary laws and the unanimous condemnation of our people, who will never allow impunity or encouragement of violence.”
The authorities are “investigating the incident to fully clarify it and are further investigating initial information.”
“The alleged perpetrator of the atrocious and vile murder used three means to carry it out.”
The extensive Facebook post by Ignacio Ramiro Hernández Crombet, one of the first government officials to confirm the news previously reported by independent journalists, elaborates on the incident, saying that the attacker was “a criminal, specifically a butcher and cattle trafficker.”
“The alleged perpetrator of the atrocious and vile murder – which has shaken and shocked the Batey Reforma and CAI Marcelo Salado Lastra community and all of Villa Blanca – used three means to carry it out: a knife, a machete and Captain Mesa’s own service weapon, inflicting countless wounds on his body, especially in the neck area,” the post says.
And Hernández Crombet suggests that the shot came from the police officer’s own weapon, a Soviet Makarov pistol, which was used to shoot him in the head before the attacker fled. “He hunted him down, taking advantage of the fact that he was alone and that the sun hadn’t yet risen,” he laments. “He left him lying, covered in blood, in the middle of the road.”
The security forces, he continued, are carrying out “significant search and capture operations for the criminal and alleged murderer.”
In his post, Hernández Crombet varies the officer’s age and years of service from the Ministry of the Interior’s statement—he is 64 years old and has “more than 25 years of uninterrupted service”—and adds that “his brilliant record of service to the country and his excellent results in combating crime and delinquency” earned him numerous distinctions from the Ministry, including the “Elogio a la Virtud” [Tribute for Virtue]. He specifies: “Captain Mesa was considered by his people to be an all-encompassing police officer.”
“That man was an abuser, a disgraceful man,” said a message signed by a “teacher” who asked that her name not be revealed.
However, a statement received by Cuban journalist Mario J. Pentón , living in the United States and made public before the Ministry of the Interior issued its statement, contradicts those words. “That man was an abuser, a disgraceful man,” read a message signed by a “teacher” who asked not to be named. The message read: “Today, a police officer was killed on the Remedios exit toward Caibarién. They shot him and took his pistol. The body is still lying on the road, awaiting forensic examination.”
According to Pentón, some residents nicknamed Mesa “Cal Viva” and remember him for his excessive behavior as a sector chief.
In any case, the speed with which the authorities confirmed the incident is unusual. The death of a police officer in Calabazar (Havana) in June 2020, in an attack in which two other officers were also injured, was first reported by the independent press. This angered the government, which blamed “anti-Cuban media” for “manipulating” the incident.
The attacker on that occasion, Yusniel Tirado Aldama, age 27, described by the official press as “an individual of terrible social conduct and a criminal record,” was sentenced to life in prison. For whoever is found guilty of Friday’s murder, the official profiles are directly demanding the death penalty.
Attacking a police officer, once unthinkable, is no longer so uncommon in Cuba. Last May, a female police officer was stabbed in the back and seriously injured in Camagüey, in the middle of the street, by an individual who “was walking around the area drinking alcoholic beverages.” According to the Ministry of the Interior, he was immediately arrested.
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