The case reopens the debate over the pressure and sanctions faced by Cuban healthcare workers.
14ymedio, Madrid, November 2, 2026 – Maribel Pupo, a nurse in the Vaccination Department of the Aracelio Rodríguez Teaching Hospital in Cumanayagua, Cienfuegos, died after spending several days in critical condition following an assault last Thursday by the father of a child whom she had asked to be brought in for vaccination. The victim was struck, causing her to fall and suffer serious head injuries, according to a report by independent communicator Niover Licea.
The municipality’s General Health Directorate confirmed the death this Monday and offered its condolences to Pupo’s husband and daughters, but omitted any reference to the attack, which had previously been reported by Licea and the Última Hora profile.
The nurse underwent surgery in Cienfuegos and remained in critical condition. Licea places her death between seven and eight in the evening on Sunday, November 1, while the Health Directorate says it occurred this Monday. Funeral services were announced for this afternoon at two o’clock at the funeral home in Cumanayagua.
Niover Licea reported that the alleged assailant remained free while Pupo was hospitalized
The independent communicator also reported that the alleged assailant remained free while Pupo was hospitalized. No official information has been released about his legal situation.
“My aunt was not a news story, she was not a name in a post,” wrote Alianny Villazon Pupo, who identified herself as the victim’s niece, in the comments on the Facebook post in which Niover Licea reported the death. “She was a daughter, a mother, a sister, an aunt, and a working woman who dedicated her life to caring for others by working as a nurse.” The young woman demanded justice and said the family would not allow her death to be forgotten.
In the comments on that same post, several healthcare workers denounced the pressure they face to ensure that families comply with childhood vaccination schedules and other medical tests.
Rosa América Castillo Ferrer described the demands made by her superiors when children were behind on their vaccinations. “I witnessed constant harassment from my supervisors and area managers over some children’s overdue vaccinations,” she wrote. At times, she said, she had to visit homes and wait for parents to pick up their children from daycare so they could be vaccinated. “The Cuban healthcare system has to change its practice of holding healthcare personnel responsible for patients’ irresponsibility,” she demanded.
Liuby García warned that a nurse could be “severely sanctioned for noncompliance” if she did not do everything possible to get a patient vaccinated. “It is definitely not the healthcare personnel’s choice,” she maintained.
For her part, Niuvys Pérez, who identified herself as a nurse, defended patients’ autonomy and “your right to receive or not receive treatment.” She also questioned whether some healthcare workers go so far as to “demand compliance or verbally mistreat a patient or family member.”
The pressures described by these healthcare workers also have consequences for patients. A resident of Havana told 14ymedio that for years the nurse at her local doctor’s office insisted that she undergo a pap smear at the neighborhood polyclinic, even though she preferred to have it done at other medical centers. According to her account, the insistence went so far that her name appeared on a public bulletin board listing women who had not undergone the test.
“The pressure on medical personnel to report that all those required tests and vaccinations have been carried out is insane, and they pass that pressure on to the patient,” says a Havana resident
“The pressure on medical personnel to report that all those required tests and vaccinations have been carried out is insane, and they pass that pressure on to the patient,” says the woman, who clarifies: “Nothing justifies the horror of what happened to this nurse.”
For her part, Idalmis Echevarría Bermúdez, who identified herself as Pupo’s friend, commented on the condolence post published by the Cumanayagua Health Directorate: “A life lost without being ill, because an illness can be understood, but a death caused by another person’s actions is unforgivable. It is something that could have been prevented.”
Maribel Pupo’s death adds to other cases of nurses murdered in Cuba in recent years. In February 2023, 29-year-old Neisa López was murdered in Bayamo. The assailant was a former police officer whom the young woman had treated as a nurse and who, according to her family, harassed her after she quit her job.
In January of this year, another nurse, 58, who worked at a prison camp in Jatibonico, Sancti Spíritus, was killed by a former inmate while returning home.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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