14ymedio, Madrid, 15 April 2025 — It is unusual for a complaint on social media in Cuba to have, first, a direct official response and, second, consequences. The employee at the Dr. Luis San Juan Pérez Provincial Psychiatric Hospital in Santa Clara, who appears in a video posted on social media beating a patient, has been fired.
The Villa Clara Health Department announced this Tuesday in a statement, explaining that “in response” to the images published on social media five days ago, an “interdisciplinary commission” conducted an investigation. The commission determined that the perpetrator was a worker identified by the initials “HBC,” hired on July 1 of last year as an emergency services assistant.
The man, the text says, “acknowledged his participation in this reprehensible act, contrary to the ethical and humanistic values that underpin our health system.” The events also occurred, they specify, 35 days ago.
For his actions, he has not only been “permanently removed” from the health center, but also “referred to the judicial authorities.
For his actions, he has not only been “permanently removed” from the health center, but also “referred to the judicial authorities for the appropriate legal action.” In their statement, the authorities express their “most sincere solidarity with the victim and her family, deeply regretting the suffering caused” and promise to work “tirelessly to prevent such painful events from recurring.”
Likewise, they firmly condemn the inhumane attitude of the person who recorded the video, who not only witnessed the attack without attempting to stop it, but also chose to share it on social media instead of immediately reporting it, demonstrating an alarming lack of compassion and responsibility.
They are referring to the video posted on X by user Rubén Carrillo on April 10. In the soundless footage, the health worker is seen hitting a patient. Carrillo wrote: “This happens very frequently at the psychiatric hospital in Santa Clara, Cuba. The assistant hits him while telling him to stay calm,” clarifying: “I removed the audio to cover up my source’s voice.”
This situation is neither unique nor new in Cuba. In Holguín, a schizophrenic patient tells this newspaper, he calls the local psychiatric hospital “that prison where they torture me.”
In 2011, a total of 13 employees of Havana’s Psychiatric Hospital were sentenced to between five and 15 years in prison for the deaths of 26 patients during a cold wave that hit the capital in January 2010. Several of them showed signs of anemia and malnutrition.
During that trial, widely reported by the official press with the intention of setting an example, it was proven that workers—including senior officials at the center—had been stealing food, blankets, and coats intended for patients for years, and that some wards even had missing windows.
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