14ymedio, Havana, 13 November 2023 — Carlos Javier Pérez López, age 30 and a resident of the municipality of Camajuaní, in Villa Clara province, died this Saturday at the hands of another young man from the same town. The victim worked in a state butcher shop on central General Naya Street and was stabbed after an altercation with his alleged attacker, José Luis Astencio García, who, after notifying Pérez’s family, turned himself in to the Police.
“The fight occurred while the scaffolding was being prepared for an Álex Duval concert in Andrés Cuevas Square, known as La Pista, in the vicinity of the butcher shop,” a source close to the victim’s family tells 14ymedio.
“José Luis, a boy more or less the same age as Carlos who works for a MSME [small private business], wanted to put up a tent to sell things in front of the butcher shop,” he adds. “Carlos came out to tell José Luis that he couldn’t set up the kiosk there, because he was waiting for the meat delivery [for the ration store] and he was going to block the way for the truck.”
According to this newspaper’s source, the alleged murderer was always “problematic” and has a history of violence against his own family
According to this newspaper’s source, the alleged murderer was always “problematic” and has a history of violence against his own family. “He didn’t like that Carlos told him no and during the argument he threw a can of beer at him. Then he went to his motorbike, took out a knife and stabbed him in the chest. He didn’t have time to do anything, Carlos immediately fell dead,” added the source.
“Then he cleaned the knife, got on the motorcycle and went to tell Carlos’s family that he had killed him. From there he went to the police station on Independencia Street and turned himself in,” the source concludes. “At the funeral there were a lot of people, and the procession covered about three blocks full of people. The whole town is in mourning.”
Pérez’s murder was also reported by Fuerza del Pueblo, a Facebook profile related to the Ministry of the Interior. Two other murders and an attempted femicide were also reported on Facebook pages linked to the regime, although, as usual, neither the official press nor the authorities offered their version of the events.
Also in Villa Clara, the murder of Ailén García Jimenez became known. She was trying to stop a fight between two girls when a woman identified as María Teresa slit her throat with an awl. The attack took place in Ojo de Agua, a rural community near the town of Calabazar de Sagua (municipality of Encrucijada).
According to the Facebook profile of her son, Eriel Lara, who reported the event, García was a teacher. The causes that motivated the aggressor, as well as her relationship with the girls or the victim, are unknown.
The death of a police officer in Holguín has also been a cause for alarm this weekend. According to the pro-government profile Realidades desde Holguín, after the local police received an emergency call reporting an “alteration of order” in the Ibero-American district, a 30-year-old agent was sent to attend to the case and was mortally wounded.
The officer was taken to the hospital, where he died shortly after. According to the official account, three individuals involved in the event, including the alleged murderer, have already been arrested and are being prosecuted.
Iván Quevedo Pérez, a man accused of shooting his ex-wife, was arrested on November 10th
In the Lenin district, also in Holguín, Iván Quevedo Pérez, a man accused of shooting his ex-wife Eliannis Obregón in the head and fleeing, was arrested.
The Facebook profile of the Ministry of the Interior agent Cazador Cazado, which reported the attack, claims that Quevedo was captured in less than eight hours, with a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the foot. The weapon, which was confiscated by the Police, “belongs to a legal possessor,” they add, without clarifying whether it belonged to any agent – since the possession of firearms is prohibited in Cuba – or how Quevedo obtained it. As for Obregón, she has been admitted to a hospital, although no details have been released about her state of health.
The wave of violence that has been unleashed throughout the country is keeping citizens awake at night. With two months left until the end of the year and with 73 femicides recorded, 2023 is on track to triple the number of women murdered by sexist violence in 2022 (34). Added to this are the numerous reports of livestock theft, assaults in the streets and altercations that the authorities are unable to resolve.
In a note published last June, the Ministry of the Interior assured that 90% of the cases in which firearms were used – the number of which was not provided – had been resolved with the arrest and charging of the perpetrators. However, it admitted that only 60% of crimes without firearms have been solved and the Prosecutor’s Office does not have enough personnel to process the avalanche of cases that arrive at its headquarters.
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