EFE (via 14ymedio), Havana, 4 July 2022 — The feminist platforms YoSíTeCreo (YSTCC — I Do Believe You) in Cuba and the Observatory of the Alas Tensas magazine reported on a sexist murder in the eastern province of Holguín, bringing the total to four femicides documented in the last week, although they occurred on different dates.
The latest victim of sexist violence is “Arletty Reyes Batista, 24 years old, who lived in a rural area of the Urbano Noris municipality (Holguín). The incident occurred on June 25 when the young woman left her house to go to the university,” relates the note from Alas Tensas published on Facebook.
Reyes was studying engineering in agro-industrial processes at the central university of the municipality where she lived, she has a 4-year-old daughter, and it is presumed that the person who attacked her was a neighbor, adds the feminist platform.
This new complaint is added to those made by the activists who during this week communicated the case of Daniela Hernández Terrero, which happened at the hands of her ex-partner and father of her two children — who committed suicide after committing the murder — on June 25 in the neighborhood of Centro Habana.
They also documented the femicide of Tania González, on June 27, at the hands of her husband and in the presence of her daughter and grandchildren, in her home in the Diezmero neighborhood, in the Havana municipality of San Miguel del Padrón.
Another similar event, the case of the young Claudia Montes, who was missing for two weeks and was finally found dead in the Martí municipality of Matanzas, was confirmed by the activists as a “sexual femicide.”
In their most recent publication they point out that “to date and only in the year 2022” their observatory “has registered 18 femicides.”
Likewise, they recall that in the face of the increase in these events of sexist violence in recent days, the independent platforms and observatories Yo Sí Te Creo en Cuba, Red Femenina de Cuba, Alianza Cubana por la Inclusión and Alas Tensas, jointly launched an “urgent call” to the Cuban government to declare a “state of emergency” due to sexist violence.
“Cuba cannot continue without carrying out the standard mechanisms to confront femicide violence: we must declare states of emergency, create shelters, have specific protocols for the disappearance of people and have a specialized system,” the feminists pointed out.
They maintain that “cases of femicide continue to be reported and there is no state response” and ask “how many more must die unnecessarily?” They also criticize the fact that the new Cuban Penal Code does not define the different types of femicides.
The Penal Code approved by the National Assembly of People’s Power of Cuba on May 15 contemplates gender-based violence, but does not classify the crime of femicide.
“When we talk about femicide violence, we make a call to face a problem that mainly affects women, but also children and even men, as evidenced in this case,” expressed Alas Tensas and YSTCC.
Both platforms that collaborate in the support and accompaniment of people in situations of sexist violence, ensure that their reports of these cases are verified by their respective observatories.
A report by Alas Tensas reported that at least 36 women died violently last year in Cuba, allegedly when they were assaulted by their romantic partners, and another 32 had a similar fate in 2020.
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