14ymedio, Havana, January 5, 2024 — The femicide of Diana Rosa Cervantes Mejías in Camagüey, which occurred on January 2, was confirmed this Thursday by the independent journalist Henry Constantín, who interviewed a relative of the victim and provided more details about the crime. The murder of Cervantes is the first case of violence against a women resulting in murder recorded by the independent media in 2024, after the previous year’s figure of 87 femicides on the Island.
According to a note published on Facebook by La Hora de Cuba, a media outlet directed by Constantín, Cervantes met her ex-partner last Tuesday in the house where they used to live together before separating, located “near the factory known as La Baldosera, in the Juruquey neighborhood” in Havana.
The 29-year-old victim was brutally beaten by the alleged aggressor, whose identity responds to the initials C.A.G. The man, said Constantín, who interviewed Cervantes’ mother, was on bail and awaiting trial at the time of the murder for having assaulted a co-worker “with a machete.”
Likewise, an anonymous source consulted by ’La Hora de Cuba’ characterized the alleged killer as “an abuser”
Several social media posts in recent days alleged that Cervantes had been beaten with a bat “out of jealousy.” Likewise, an anonymous source consulted by La Hora de Cuba characterized the alleged killer as “an abuser.” The aggressor “is now imprisoned,” this media confirmed, adding that Cervantes “left behind a nine-year-old boy.”
This Monday there was also news of the femicide of Nurisbel Guerra, a nurse resident in the Granma municipality of Cauto Cristo, who was serving on a medical mission in Venezuela. After returning to the Island for a few days on December 24, she was killed by her husband, who committed suicide after cutting her throat. The man, identified as Oreste Tamayo, from whom she intended to separate, was a worker at the Electricity Company of the province, as several media reported at the time.
The name “Guerra” was the last one added to the 87 femicides – more than double those quantified a year earlier (34) – that occurred on the Island in 2023, as confirmed by independent platforms and media.
This type of crime, which is not classified in the Criminal Code, has managed to attract the attention of the Island’s population, who demand a response from the authorities in the face of the “wave of violence” in the country that has claimed the lives of dozens of women.
For their part, both the official press and the authorities keep their distance from femicides, and their promises to prevent and quantify cases of violence against women in real time remain unfulfilled.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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