
14ymedio, Madrid, 20 January 2025 — Inspections and fines have not been effective against cattle theft, one of the crimes that affect the province of Las Tunas. Crimes against livestock increased by 10% compared to 2023, according to Periódico 26, which does not give the total figure by year. In addition, to show the scope of this crime, the data indicate that “the rate of increase is ten times higher than for all other crimes” in the previous year.
According to the official media, theft is the most common crime of this type, followed by slaughter and robbery with violence, which means that thieves are specializing in defeating the scarce protection that ranchers have.
Periodico 26 defines it as taking advantage of “the carelessness and naivety of the owners,” although the ranchers have mentioned on numerous occasions that they don’t have the resources to buy even such simple elements as barbed wire to protect their animals. In some areas, they have had to organize on their own to guard and take care of their livestock.
Las Tunas, Jobabo and Majibacoa again have the worst statistics, with half the thefts occurring in these three municipalities. The worst areas are Dumoy, Villanueva and Barranca in Las Tunas; Las Margaritas and Calixto in Majibacoa; Mejía in Jobabo; and El Triángulo in Colombia. In some of these places the crimes occurred every two or three days.
In 2022 there were 5,305 cases that accounted for 70% more than the 3,098 reported in 2021
The province has had dizzying growth in livestock crimes for years, but there are no figures for the last two. In 2022 there were 5,305 cases, 70% more than the 3,098 reported in 2021. Even then the figures were worrying, since it was already twice the 2020 figure of 2,394 crimes.
Periodico 26 takes advantage of the report to take stock of the results of the livestock census carried out in the province. According to the data, there were 1,300 “control actions” on cattle owners that revealed that 1,662 animals “existed only on paper, while another 243 could be seen and touched, but there was no birth document for them.” The newspaper emphasizes that this mismatch makes it clear that there are more unreported thefts and undeclared animals than the law allows.
The authorities imposed 79 fines and 41 warnings for violating the rules. There were also 126 complaints filed for non-compliance with the duty to report, in addition to sanctions for simulation of crimes, falsification of documents and “breach of the duty to preserve property.”
The Delegation of Agriculture in Majibacoa considered that it necessary to take other measures, since the results make it clear that the crimes increase every year. The announced measure, however, does not promise too much, since it consists of carrying out selective inspections of the cattle owners “with the most problems.”
The Jobabo delegation is betting on another idea that doesn’t sound encouraging either: changes in the leadership of cooperatives and base units that they consider incompetent to “face” the situation. At the same time they recognize that “the functioning of the local agrarian commission is also deficient, as well as the work of the specialists and officials,” conclusions that make it clear that the incompetence is shared. Not in vain, the delegation of Las Tunas holds other people responsible: the State registrars of Livestock Control.
The first secretary of the Communist Party in the province, Walter Simón Noris, resorted to a more tearful speech, which did not provide any solution. “Nothing is enough, and we are not forgiven by the children who would have enjoyed the milk of the stolen cows or the families who could have received at subsidized prices the meat of those cattle that, after being illegally slaughtered, end up on the black market,” he scolded.
Continuing, the politician called for more efforts and, despite the description of the officials as incompetent, “the presence of the Party as a representative of the interests of the people.”
Translated by Regina Anavy
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