All Those Involved in the Rape of a Young Girl in Havana Are Under Arrest

The events occurred in the Havana municipality of El Cotorro. (Capture)

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Luz Escobar, Havana, 6 October 2020 — The six men implicated in the rape of a 13-year-old girl in the Havana municipality of Cotorro were detained by the police. The mother of the minor communicated this to 14ymedio, while thanking the newspaper for publishing information about the case.

“I want to thank you for the complaints that came out in the independent press. They are all already imprisoned in the Técnico de Alamar, a police unit that specializes in investigations of murders and rapes,” the woman said.

According to her own account, the mother was contacted by the National Center for Sex Education (Cenesex), directed by Mariela Castro. “She, Mariela, contacted me through her secretary, because she had found out about the case through social networks,” she says. “They told me they were going to support me because justice has to be done and they shouldn’t be out on the street.”

As she herself told this newspaper, after reporting the incident to the police, the authorities arrested three of the accused and released them a few hours later. She also said that she never received the results of the tests performed on her daughter by Forensic Medicine. “My daughter felt a great relief to know that they are all prisoners, and so did I,” says the mother.

In the statements she gave a few days ago, the woman reported that of the six men now detained, five participated directly in the attack and a sixth “stood watching.”

She also said that her daughter was infected with a bacteria during the attack and had to undergo a treatment with antibiotics and that she has also needed psychological help. “To be calm and be able to sleep, she has to take Librium for everything those criminals did to her,” she lamented.

The Penal Code establishes penalties of seven to 15 years deprivation of liberty for those found guilty of the rape of a victim over 12 and under 14 years old.

Sexual abuse against minors grew in Cuba by 24% between 2016 and May 2019, as confirmed by a government report on human trafficking, which also states that every four hours a minor in Cuba suffers a sexual crime. In the last of the years analyzed, from June 2018 to May 2019, sexual crimes against children totaled 2,350.

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