14ymedio, Havana, 4 July 2022 — Professor Santiago Morgado, who had been missing in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba, since last Friday, was found dead on Monday. According to the activist Néstor Estévez, with a source in the victim’s own family, the body was inside a well in the Planta Cantú area, in the heart of the Sancti Spiritus mountain range.
The family is convinced that he was killed to steal the motorcycle he was riding, but the police investigation is just beginning. Morgado had left Sancti Spíritus on Friday, heading for Banao, around noon. The last time they saw him was at the Guasimal junction.
This weekend, the authorities found Morgado’s motorcycle helmet on the road through El Pinto, before reaching Banao, and this Monday, his glasses and a shoe were found near the well where, hours later, the body was recovered by firefighters.
Estévez said that this is the second incident reported in the municipality in a few weeks. “The last case was in the area of the 415 behind Pesca. We are not talking about thieves. We are talking about murderers who steal.”
The motorcycles currently cost, depending on the brand, about 9,000 dollars on average and given the lack of parts in the country, those that are stolen are sold on the black market for parts. This means of transportation has become essential for the day-to-day life of many Cubans due to the poor public service.
At the end of last December, four individuals were arrested for the murder of the Holguin motorcyclist Armando Argelio Pérez Zaldívar. The 49-year-old man had been seen for the last time a week before and his body was found after several complaints from relatives on social networks.
The perpetrators of the crime “alleged as a motive, that their objective was to appropriate the means of transport and sell it in order to pay off a debt of 50,000 pesos,” according to what the Ministry of the Interior reported at the time.
Another of the most reported cases in the independent press was that of motorcyclist Daniel Martínez Pupo, who in early 2020 was found dead in a neighborhood also in Holguín. The remains of the 24-year-old were found in three bags buried in the Alcides Pino garbage dump and the mastermind of the crime, as it later became known, allegedly owed the victim money.
____________
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.
