A couple from Guanabacoa recounts the brutal assault by two hooded men who stole their motorcycle during a blackout.
14ymedio, Dario Hernandez, Havana, August 9, 2026 / “We left because we had no other option.” That’s how a couple from Guanabacoa explains the decision that ended up costing them the electric scooter they had bought with years of savings and the support of a relative who had emigrated. She needed internet access to work as a ‘community manager’; he, a barber, used the trip to shower at a house in Regla where there was running water. They were returning home when two hooded men intercepted them and stole the electric scooter at knifepoint.
The assault occurred shortly after 11 p.m., as they were returning along a poorly lit avenue near the entrance to Guanabacoa. “They appeared from behind on a motorcycle. The passenger was carrying a knife. They slashed at them and kicked them to the ground,” a person close to the victims told 14ymedio.
When they both fell to the pavement, the aggressors seized the moped. “They already had the moped, but they still stabbed the boy in the arm. The wound was four fingers deep,” the testimony adds.
The couple filed a police report, but say they haven’t heard anything since. “They haven’t called us, and we haven’t seen any activity,” they lamented.
The moped, bought less than a year ago for about $1,300, is now worth nearly $2,300 on the black market. “That was practically all our savings,” they explained. And, in addition, they lost their main work tool. He used it several times a week to travel from Guanabacoa to a barbershop in El Vedado and to make deliveries for coffee shops; she depended on the moped to reach places where she could still access the internet during the frequent power outages.
Now, they calculate, just the one-way trip by private transport to El Vedado will cost around 1,000 pesos.
“They were renters, they don’t have children because they were saving to emigrate and they also planned to sell their moped when that time came. In a matter of minutes they lost years of sacrifice,” the relative summarizes.
Beyond the robbery, the incident reflects a reality that many Havana residents have been describing for months. The combination of power outages, deserted streets, and poor lighting has increased insecurity at night.
“You go out at ten o’clock at night and it feels like three in the morning,” the same source says. “There’s not a soul in the street. People are waiting for the electricity or water to come back on, or they’re simply locked inside their homes. All of Cuba is like a wolf’s den.”
The victims say that, while filing the report, they learned of another case that had occurred a few days earlier. “They told us that a tricycle had been stolen using the same modus operandi in the Puente del Ahorcado area of Regla,” they stated. They also believe that “the police know these robberies are occuring, but the impression we have is that they’re doing nothing.”
Other residents consulted by this newspaper mentioned areas they consider particularly dangerous at night, including Primelles and Vía Blanca, 23rd and Paseo, and Lacret, in the Diez de Octubre neighborhood. Their accounts coincide in describing thefts or attempted thefts of mopeds and tricycles, although there are no official statistics to quantify the problem.
“After ten o’clock at night, run every red light,” a stranger advised a motorcyclist as he rode through Havana. “If you stop, you become very vulnerable.”
On social media during recent months reports of stolen motorcycles and electric tricycles have multipled, along with posts from family members and neighbors trying to locate stolen vehicles or identify the perpetrators. While some of these cases have been solved by the police, many victims maintain they never received any updates on the progress of the investigations.
Without public figures from the Ministry of the Interior on these types of crimes, it is impossible to determine whether robberies have increased. What does seem to be growing is the fear of those who depend on a motorcycle to work, get around, or simply survive in a city where the lack of electricity, water, and transportation forces more and more people to travel through dark and nearly empty streets at night.
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