Independent observatories confirmed the murder of Orlis Daniela, a nine-year-old girl, at the hands of a neighbor in Grito de Yara.
14ymedio, Havana, 28 June 2025 — The Provincial Court of Las Tunas on Friday sentenced a man accused of killing his former partner to 28 years in prison, the official press reported. “The accused, in the early hours of June 5, 2024, assaulted with a knife and took the life of the woman (…), with whom he had two children,” reported Periódico 26, which did not reveal the name of the victim or the aggressor.
However, the description of the crime coincides with the femicide of 25-year-old Katia Ortiz Figueredo on the same date last year. At that time, an aunt of the young woman told the Cuban journalist Alberto Arego that the murder occurred in the door of the pharmacy located on 11th street in the Aguilera neighborhood, close to 11:00 at night and in front of several people waiting to buy medicines.
“They were divorced a few months ago, but he had held her under threats for five days in her home and sexually abused her, making her pregnant, according to the forensic expert who examined the body. She left behind two children, a boy of eight and a three-year-old girl,” said a family member.
The newspaper also identified the killer with the initials, Y.V., who was arrested that same night. Asked by Arego whether the family was aware of the situation, the woman said that her niece was very afraid and did not want to “expose” her relatives to possible reprisals, so no complaint was made. Periódico 26 also pointed out that the aggressor “has previously been punished for other acts”, although it did not clarify whether they are related to machista violence or whether they were of a different nature.
The trial was held as part of the “third national exercise to prevent and combat crime, corruption, drugs, illegalities and social indiscipline”
In addition to the prison sentence, the court applied the additional penalties of deprivation of public rights, the prohibition of passport application and departure from the country during the serving of his sentence, and the duty to provide maintenance for the minor children until they reach the age of majority or until they complete their studies.
The trial was held as part of the “third national exercise to prevent and combat crime, corruption, drugs, illegalities and social indiscipline,” carried out this week by the Government. The official press report does not mention femicide or machista violence, but instead categorizes it as murder, as stated in the Penal Code.
This Friday, the observatories Alas Tensas and Yo Sí Te Creo in Cuba (YSTC) confirmed the death on June 20 of Orlis Daniela, a nine-year-old girl, at the hands of a neighbor in Grito de Yara, Granma province. “Orlis Daniela and her younger siblings were the ones who found the body of their mother, Yusmila Mayo Ruiz, a victim of femicide in 2024 in Las Tunas,” said the platforms, accusing authorities of failing to protect indirect victims of cases of machista violence.
However, the relationship between the girl and the aggressor is unknown, so the observatories classified the crime as a “social femicide.” 14ymedio, for its part, records these cases as homicides.
“The terrible story of this little girl is not a tragedy or fate; it is the consequence of a broken society and neglect of the State, which refuses to protect the lives of women and girls,” said the platforms, which asked for protection for the four younger siblings of Orlis Daniela.
“A total of 76 women aged 15 and over were victims of gender-related murder at the hands of their partners, former partners or other persons”
According to a recent report by Cuba’s state-run Observatory on Gender Equality, “a total of 76 women aged 15 and over were victims of gender-related murder at the hands of their partners, ex-partners or other persons,” as revealed in court proceedings held in 2024. The Observatory, established in 2023 to collect official data on women’s participation in various fields, including statistics of “women who have been victims of intentional homicide” by machista violence, cited that “in 73.7 per cent of the cases, the incident took place at home, and a total of 70 children were left without maternal care.”
Regarding the relationship between the victims and the aggressor, it pointed out that the number deaths of women by their partner or former partner totaled 50 in 2023 and 55 in 2024.
In Cuba, femicide is not criminalized, and there is little information about the machista murders in the official press. The Attorney General’s Office, the Ministry of the Interior, the Supreme Court and other institutions recently announced that they would jointly develop a computerized administrative register to collect data on femicides, but clarified that it would not be made public.
The register of machista murders by 14ymedio so far this year is 15 femicides.
Translated by Regina Anavy
____________
COLLABORATE WITH OUR WORK: The 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.