Cuba Closed the Year with 54 Femicides, 33 Fewer Than the Year Before

It is still a very high number when compared to Spain, where there were 47 cases with a population five times larger.

“Violence leaves marks, ignoring them leaves femicides” / YoSiTeCreo en Cuba

14ymedio bigger14ymedio, Havana, 7 January 2024 — The year 2024 closes with a significant reduction in deaths from gender-based violence. The Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba (YSTC) observatories counted 55 cases, 32 fewer than in 2023, an inventory that presents some differences with respect to the list prepared by 14ymedio for the same period, which includes 54 cases (33 fewer than a year earlier).

The first difference between the report of this newspaper and that of the independent observatories is the non-inclusion by 14ymedio of three of the cases that appear on the list of Alas Tensas and YSTC. These are the murders of a 92-year-old woman identified as María, in Lawton (Havana); of another elderly woman, Paulina Chiquitica Collazo Ramos, in Los Arabos (Matanzas); and of Edgar Aliesky Martínez Torres, a five-year-old boy assaulted in Minas (Camagüey).

In the first two cases, this newspaper considers that there were reasons were not related to gender and, as for Martínez Torres, he was murdered by his father after the minor’s mother refused to resume a romantic relationship with him, which is why 14ymedio considers it a case of vicarious violence and not a femicide.

The list of this newspaper also includes two femicides that do not appear in the platforms’ registry.

On the other hand, this newspaper list includes two femicides that do not appear in the registry of the platforms. One is Samantha Heredia, a 22-year-old nurse who was murdered on March 2 in Santiago de Cuba by her husband, Dr. Pedro Carmenate. The news was confirmed to this newspaper by an employee of the Juan Bruno Zayas Clinical Surgical Hospital in the eastern capital, where the victim and the aggressor met and where the latter worked as a resident doctor.

In addition to Heredia’s case, there is also that of Naomi Téllez Wilson, 24, on November 20 in Old Havana. The young woman was beaten by her ex-partner and attacked with a knife. The alleged murderer was arrested shortly after the incident. The observatories referred to this femicide, but did not confirm it.

This newspaper also added the names of Elisbeidi Tamayo Peña and Aniuska Hernández Ginard to its registry later, which were not listed initially. The murder of Tamayo, aged 39, occurred on 11 April. Tamayo was the mother of three children and was strangled by her ex-partner in the municipality of Sibanicú, in Camagüey. After the attack, the man took his own life.

In the case of Hernández, 49 years old, also a mother of three children, she was murdered on June 4 in her home in Guantánamo by a “neighbor” with an alleged criminal record and who had served a sentence for murder.

Both the registry prepared by the observatories and that of ’14ymedio’ shed light on the behavior of cases of gender-based violence on the Island

Although they differ in the aspects mentioned, both the records prepared by the observatories and that of 14ymedio shed light on the behavior of cases of gender-based violence on the Island. The ages of the women murdered on the Island, for example, range from 15 years to 92. Although it is more common for the women to be between 30 and 40 years old, the records make it clear that all age groups are vulnerable.

The number of orphans, however, increased significantly, reaching a total of 62, 21 more than the previous year.

The months with the highest number of femicides were October and November, with eight cases each, followed by June, with seven. In most of the femicides, the aggressor was the victim’s partner or ex-partner, and in many cases, family members stated that they had a history of violence.

Although the number of femicides is much lower than that recorded in 2023 (87), the Island still has a high rate of femicides in relation to its population. The figure is significantly higher than that of Spain – with five times the population of Cuba – where there were 47 cases in 2024.

____________

COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORKThe 14ymedio team is committed to practicing serious journalism that reflects Cuba’s reality in all its depth. Thank you for joining us on this long journey. We invite you to continue supporting us by becoming a member of 14ymedio now. Together we can continue transforming journalism in Cuba.