CDMX, Mexico. – Dayris Fuentes, 35, was killed on the night of June 13 in the town of Zulueta, Remedios municipality, in Villa Clara, confirmed to CubaNet Yadiraydi Duquesne, friend of the victim.
The young woman was attacked with a knife by her ex-partner, who had a history of violence towards her and had been in prison for robbery with force. “They had been fighting weeks ago but he wouldn’t leave her alone and he was chasing her,” Duquesne explains.
Fuentes’ body was found this Wednesday morning among some bushes, near his own home. “Last night there was no electricity and he took the opportunity to kill her and left her body lying on her. This morning she turned herself in to the Police ”, details the interviewee.
Fuentes is survived by a minor daughter.
The femicide of Fuentes was initially reported on social media, where numerous people close to her and her family expressed condolences. in conversation with CubaNetvia Messenger, another resident of Zulueta, also confirmed the femicide on condition of anonymity.
With this crime, the femicides reported on the Island so far in 2023 rise to 39. The figure already exceeds the total number of women murdered ―for gender reasons― reported throughout 2022, when 36 were registered.
The statistics on gender violence on the island barely constitute a subrecord updated by civil society organizations, such as the support platform for people in situations of gender violence YoSíTeCreo in Cuba and the Gender Observatory of the feminist magazine taut wings. It is not possible to know how many women have died from gender-related issues. The Government does not make the figures transparent or tell the stories of the victims.
So far in June, three other femicides have been reported on the island. The most recent, corroborated on June 10, was that of Anisleysi Rodríguez Mesero, 34 years old and resident of the Cerro municipality, in Havana. Previously, the femicide of María Cristina Rodríguez Rodríguez, a 43-year-old woman residing in the El Manguito neighborhood of the Songo La Maya municipality, who was also sexually assaulted, had come to light.
Similarly, this month the murder of Dianelis Carbonell Mayet, 41, who lived in the rural town of Las Nuevas, in La Sierpe, province of Sancti Spíritus, became known.
So far this year, at least one femicide has been reported in each of the 15 Cuban provinces. Most of the murdered women lost their lives at the hands of men they knew and who were, in many cases, their partner or ex-partner.
In the face of the wave of femicides in the country, independent feminist platforms they keep suing the regime measures to protect women from sexist violence; among them, the creation of shelters for people at risk and the approval of a comprehensive law against gender violence.
