The woman was stabbed three times in public.
14ymedio, Havana, 15 June 2025 — The murder of Gretel Matos, mother of two small children, last Friday in Granma province brings the total of femicides to 15 so far this year in Cuba, according to 14ymedio records. The 33-year-old woman was stabbed three times in the street in the Niquero municipality, where she lived.
Matos’ assailant was named as Didier Almagro, father of her second child, “who fled after committing the crime, near La Plaza del Pueblo,” according to the independent media La Hora de Cuba.
The man was hiding from the law up to this Saturday said a media source, who added that “he said several times he was going to kill her (Matos), after he had tried unsuccessfully to revive their relationship.”
La Hora de Cuba reported that she was with her present partner when it happened.
Almagro “had said on various occasions that he was going to kill her, after he had tried unsuccessfully to revive their relationship
At the start of the month, the official press, which rarely mentions this type of crime, reported the femicide of Rosa María Santana Álvarez, aged 29, following lots of rumours of her death in social media.
Escambray reported that the aggressor, Santana’s ex-partner, had been caught and confessed to the killing of the woman who was mother of two young children. The main was arrested “less than two hours after he did it,” a Ministry of the Interior committee was pleased to report to the paper. It added that the arrest was “thanks to public support” and the speedy action of the police.
A few weeks before that, at the end of April, Yiliannys Reyes, a girl from Camagüey, hardly 17-years-old, was assaulted, also at the hands of her ex-partner. And before that, 40-year-old Yunisleidy López Milián, had been killed by her partner, who attacked her in her home in Guayos in Cabaiguán municipality.
To date this year, there have been 15 femicides in Cuba according to our records. The feminist associations noted the killing of Odalys Bataille as an instance of this type of violence. She was a 53-year-old nurse in Habana del Este. But up to now it is not known what the link is between the victim and the perpetrator, a presumed ex-convict, and 14ymedio has it registered as a homicide.
Translated by GH
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