14ymedio, Havana, 11 June 2023 — Cuban authorities arrested three individuals in Santiago de Cuba who confessed to having assaulted and beaten the parents of the Cuban Catholic priest Leandro Naun. Two of those involved, according to the Facebook page “Santiago de Cuba al día,” which supports the regime, have been previously prosecuted for theft.
The page added that one of the detainees is 27 years old and the other two are 21, without giving more details about their identities. All of them, it emphasized, have “terrible social behavior.” Last Monday, three masked men broke into the priest’s parents’ house around midnight, located in the Santa María neighborhood (Santiago de Cuba). When they were discovered, they beat Elsy Hung, the priest’s mother, and hit his father, Nelson Naun, on the head with a machete.
This Saturday, the priest, who is visiting Italy, reported on his social networks that his father was able to get out of bed and take his first steps, after his admission to the provincial hospital. “He has already eaten and is talking very coherently,” he said.
The wounded man underwent surgery for the injury, according to the priest. “He continues to evolve satisfactorily and respond to treatment. The inflammation has decreased.” Last Tuesday he announced that the impact to his father’s head “does not seem to have affected him seriously, but he is under observation.”
About his mother Elsy, he said that “she suffered some blows, without major damage, according to the medical examination carried out.”
The last week of May, the rector of the church of San Francisco, in Santiago de Cuba, Eliosbel Pereira, was assaulted with a machete to steal his motorcycle. He had to undergo surgery to rebuild his hand.
The church of San Charbel and Santo Tomás de Villanueva, located in the Havana municipality of Playa, was looted on April 29. They took megaphones, lights and fans, as well as an Easter candle.
The Cuban Conflict Observatory stressed that crime and citizen insecurity have intensified in Cuba. According to official figures, in the first three months of the year there were 10 murders in the different provinces in attempts to steal a phone, a gold chain and a motorcycle.
The parish of the Sacred Heart and the chapel of Jesús Obrero, located in El Vedado, have also suffered robberies. Both precincts are under the care of a priest who is critical of the regime, Lester Zayas.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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