14ymedio, Havana, 25 July 2023 — The Ministry of the Interior of Guantánamo province announced, in a brief statement, the arrest last Saturday of the murderers of photographer Orlando Tamayo Guevara. The three detainees, whose identities have not been revealed by the authorities, were found in possession of money and two electric motor bikes belonging to the victim.
The information, disseminated on Facebook by the government official Edwin Levis, emphasizes that the three were captured “in less than 24 hours” and that they “admitted their direct participation” in the murder of Tamayo, who owned Burlesque Studio. The aggressors will be prosecuted for homicide.
Levis published images of the stolen objects including backpacks, a pair of sneakers and some plastic bags stolen from the photographer’s residence, 703 Máximo Gómez Street, between Narciso López and Jesús del Sol in the city of Guantánamo.
On social networks, users who reacted to the publication about the crime are asking for justice. “Enough regarding with pity all those who murder, assault and want to implant disorder, fear and anxiety,” said Javier Barrientos, a resident of Guantánamo. Other more radical comments, such as from the habanera Ofelia Rosa Díaz Velázquez, asked for the “death penalty” for the confessed murderers.
The Commission on Constitutional and Parliamentary Legal Affairs, meeting on July 18, offered figures for crime on the Island and the ones that they consider a priority. The homicides were not on the list. Last June, however, the Government revealed that violent crimes accounted for 8.5% of the total illicit activities that took place in the first half of 2023.
Days before Tamayo’s murder, Cuban authorities reported the capture of three people involved in the murder of radio announcer David Alexis González Joseph, also originally from Guántánamo. The collaborator of the official radio station CMKS was killed inside his home on April 26.
In an editorial published last June, the official newspaper Granma said that these cases are “shamelessly magnified or manipulated by digital enemy websites.” For the regime, the information “stimulates” an alleged scenario of instability that seeks to “discredit Cuba’s international prestige as a safe tourist destination, in order to hit one of the country’s main economic sources.”
Recently, before the National Assembly, Miguel Díaz-Canel said that there is an “imperial commitment” to fabricate a climate of tension and citizen distrust that erodes “popular unity” in Cuba.
Translated by Regina Anavy
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