Authorities presumably arrested the six responsible “in less than 24 hours.”
14ymedio, Havana, August 7, 2025 — A caretaker was killed and another seriously injured when six individuals raided a state cooperative in Santiago de Cuba to steal sheep. According to a brief statement released on Wednesday by the official press, the events took place on Monday night when “unknown persons” entered the UBPC Fidel Domenech Rizo, in Pueblo Nuevo, belonging to the municipality of Contramaestre.
From there they left with 13 animals, the text says, and “objects of the entity,” after killing one of the guards and inflicting “serious injuries on a second, to the point that he thought he would die.” The Ministry of the Interior’s statement says that early on Tuesday “investigations began,” and “within a few hours” they identified “several recipients of the stolen meat, as well as citizens associated with the commission of the act.”
The report does not give more details of the victims or the possible perpetrators, but an official profile on Facebook of Heroes of the Moncada gives complete information. The suspects are six men, between 33 and 43 years old, who have already been arrested. The post, which differs by one in the number of stolen sheep -12-, presumes that the security forces “solved the crime in less than 24 hours, putting behind bars the aggressors, who will be tried by the courts with the severity that such a reprehensible crime requires.”
Several comments offer condolences for the murdered caretaker, whom they call Ismael.
Similarly, the publication reports that the animals were recovered and “slaughtered in gastronomic and recreational facilities of the municipality.”
In the comments, several users offer their condolences for the murdered caretaker, whom they call Ismael, a local resident. As usual in this type of crime, which is increasingly common on the island, commentators also call for the death penalty for those responsible.
Last October, three people were sentenced to life imprisonment and a fourth to 30 years in prison for the murder of the custodian of the Industrial Forestal de Mayarí economic unit, in Holguín, Orlando Pérez, who surprised them while they tried to steal the batteries from several vehicles of the state company.
Deputy Víctor Manuel Montesinos, from Contramaestre, denounced in July before the Agroalimentaria Commission of the National Assembly that of every 100 cases of livestock theft, “only one or two are solved.” That session of the Parliament exposed the debacle of the sector, which has only decreased, by leaps and bounds, since 2019. Additional data provided is that 84.5% of the livestock mass is in the hands of private producers while the government continues to prioritize the state sector, unable to guarantee even the shade under which their cows graze.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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